June 1767: after 46 years of faithful service as cantor and music director of Hamburg, Georg Philipp Telemann passed away – one of the greatest German composers ever. His successor was a talented composer and keyboard virtuoso who had earned international fame as a musician at the court of Frederick the Great: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the second (surviving) son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Telemann’s godchild. On the occasion of the tercentenary of Bach Jr Les Muffatti juxtaposes the two legendary composers.
From CPE Bach Peter Van Heyghen selected two mature works, written just before and just after his arrival in Hamburg. In addition, he offers two rarely performed compositions that Telemann wrote during the last four years of his life. Hard to conceive how modern Telemann’s style was in old age (most prominently in the cantata Ino!), and how the styles of both composers, no matter how they belonged to different generations, were hand in glove!

Performers
Hasnaa Bennani, soprano | Kris Verhelst, harpsichord | Peter Van Heyghen, artistic direction

Programme
G.P. Telemann: Suite in D, TWN 55:D23; Ino, TWV 20:41 | C.P.E. Bach: Concerto for harpsichord in F, W.38; Symphony in C, W.182, 1

19 January, 2014 14:00 -- AMUZ

Friend of the family and top musician Thomas Baeté has always been a cherished guest at AMUZ. Once his first ensemble, ClubMediéval, was baptized during Laus Polyphoniae 2010, and now there is the brand new Transports Publics: again an outstanding collective that promises to bring more exceptionally talented young musicians into the limelight. With Music for John Gostling it delivers rightaway with a powerful programme: English baroque, culled from the famous music collection of canon, singer and copyist John Gostling.
Today John Gostling has fallen into oblivion, but once he earned the admiration of his most illustrious musical contemporaries – that of Henry Purcell, for example, who composed They that go down to the sea in ships especially for Gostling. Today, almost three centuries after his death, Gostling’s visibility has been raised again through the compositions of Purcell, Blow and contemporaries who have survived the ravages of time by virtue of his pen.

Uitvoerders
Griet De Geyter, soprano | Steve Dugardin, alto | Kevin Skelton, tenor | Lisandro Abadie, bass | Varoujan Doneyan, baroque violin | Jivka Kaltcheva, baroque violin | Manuela Bucher, baroque viola | Jan Van Outryve, archlute | Bart Naessens, orgel organ | Thomas Baeté, viol & artistic direction

Programme
Work of H. Purcell, P. Humpfrey, M. Locke, J. Blow a.o.

24 January, 2014 20:00 -- AMUZ

After Beethoven the cello repertoire would never be the same again: at one go he liberated the instrument from its subservient role, giving it pride of place as an equal to the piano. With his cello sonatas Beethoven was taking serious risks: not only did he have to emancipate the instrument, he also had to create a workable balance with the fortepiano.

Beethoven’s first cello sonatas were very innovative: expressive, dramatic, and dynamised by a masterly instrumental dialogue. In the same period he wrote the Händel variations, probably after having attended a rehearsal of Judas Maccabeus. The cello sonatas, opus 102 were composed in a later phase of his career. They were dedicated to the countess Erdödy, who organised musical evenings in her summer residence. Beethoven supplied her on her demand with music that she could execute together with her teacher/violoncellist, but these sonatas never became set pieces: variation and experiment are prominent in these toppers! With Roel Dieltiens and artist in residence Andreas Staier you can be assured of a top-notch concert.

Performers
Roel Dieltiens, cello | Andreas Staier, fortepiano

Programme
L. van Beethoven: Cellosonate in A, op. 69; Händelvariations, WoO45; Cellosonate in C, op. 102 nr. 1; Cellosonate in D, op. 102 nr. 2

26 January, 2014 14:00 -- AMUZ

With twelve super voices and lots of stage presence, Chanticleer has already earned acclaim  all over the world. This season they are for the first time in AMUZ to serve a musical menu, the way they like it best: meandering between seriousness and frivolity, from melancholy musing to pertinent statement en from exuberant voice play to intimate stillness and pure beauty.
Under the title She said/He said the struggle between the sexes is musically thrashed out. Joining Chanticleer in the ring: Hildegard von Bingen, Emily Dickinson and Stacy Garrop vs. Andrea Gabrieli, Johannes Brahms and Francis Poulenc. The tactics of these old stagers is as simple as it is brilliant, based first and foremost on artistic top quality: prima la musica e poi il gioco!

In cooperation with Concertgebouw Brugge

Uitvoerders
Chanticleer | Jace Wittig, artistic direction

Programma
Work of H. von Bingen, J. Brahms a.o.

01 February, 2014 20:00 -- AMUZ

Already in the earliest days of Christianity special liturgical services were celebrated for the dead. Also in music history traces of the requiem exist as early as the Middle Ages. With Et Lux for four voices and string quartet Wolfgang Rihm therefore inscribed himself in 2009 into a long tradition, even though the work is a reflection on, rather than a recapitulation of the traditional Mass for the Dead.
Wolfgang Rihm is an icon of the contemporary classic music scene, with a legendary productivity and versatility. For Et Lux he selected verses from the Office for the Dead that reflect on the Eternal Light standing out against the shadows of death. The result is an equally comforting and unsettling sound play with daring harmonies and a soft texture of voices. Up the alley of the Huelgas Ensemble, flanked for this occasion by the renowned Minguet Quartett.

Performers
Huelgas Ensemble & Minguet Quartett | Paul Van Nevel, artistic direction

Programme
W. Rihm: Et Lux

08 February, 2014 20:00 -- AMUZ

Ravel’s famous piano volume Miroirs, his highly personal reflection about several aspects of reality, results also as a mirrored version in the same game of semblance and resemblance. With Claire Chevallier as an ideal sounding board and one of the splendid Erards from her collection as a protagonist, Spectra Ensemble keenly samples from the oeuvre of five of the most eminent contemporary composers with a view to showing Ravel’s early modern piano
universe in mirror image.
In works by Saariaho, Satoh, Murail, Sciarrino and Fafchamps, Ravel’s musical musings are confronted with a mirror. In a comprehensive performance steeped in atmosphere the rhythmical trouvailles of Ravel’s Noctuelles, the strange bird cries of Oiseaux tristes, the exceedingly difficult Une barque sur l’océan, the exotic Alborada del gracioso and the surprising La vallée des cloches constitute the point of departure for an exploration that works in two directions: from Ravel’s reality to its solidified musical impressions, and from a world that is closer to ours to that special artistic universe.

Performers
Claire Chevallier, piano | Filip Rathé, artistic direction | Stef Stessels, set design

Programme
M. Ravel: Miroirs | K. Saariaho: Sept Papillons | S. Satoh: The Birds in Warped Time II | T. Murail: La Barque Mystique | S. Sciarrino: Ai limite della notte | J.-L. Fafchamps: Lettre Soufie – Sh(în)

22 February, 2014 20:00 -- AMUZ