The collaboration between Oxalys and composer Annelies Van Parys during last year’s concert season was a hit: this was a Pelléas & Mélisande to frame! By request of AMUZ this felicitous ensemble will perform again, this time in the company of star soprano Claire Lefilliâtre and Joseph Canteloube – or rather: his masterly Chants d’Auvergne.
Ranging across an exceptonially wide gamut of timbres and colours the Chants d’Auvergne are the ultimate homage to the composer’s native region. Canteloube’s song arrangements let the farmer sing and the corn rustle – no sober quieting down here, but a musical wealth that echos and evokes the grandeur of the landscape. Right up the street of Annelies Van Parys, who with this colourful palette sets to work for a performance tailor-made for chamber ensemble Oxalys.

Performers
Oxalys | Claire Lefilliâtre, soprano | Koenraad Hofman, artistic direction

Programme
J. Canteloube/A. Van Parijs (arr.): selection from Chants d’Auvergne

05 April, 2014 19:00 -- AMUZ

For over twenty years Il Gardellino has been offering a successful recipe with class: the best repertoire, the most talented musicians and the most beautiful period instruments. A luxurious treatment that after numerous baroque masters is now also given to Beethoven! The wind instruments dominate the scene, for example with a Trio for flute, bassoon and piano by Beethoven composed when he was a mere stripling, probably for the musical family Von Westerholt. The Octet and Rondino from 1792, for their part, were intended as table music for Elector Maximilan Franz, offering a very palatable, but stunningly energetic whole. The Quintet for fortepiano, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn dates from the same period, with Haydn’s and Mozart’s hands resting on Beethoven’s shoulders …

Performers
Arthur Schoonderwoerd, fortepiano | Jan De Winne, flute | Marcel Ponseele, oboe | Taka Kitazato, oboe | Benjamin Dieltjens, clarinet | Jean Philippe Poncin, clarinet | Jean-Pierre Dassonville, natural horn | Bart Cypers, natural horn | Alain De Rijckere, bassoon | Jean François Carlier, bassoon

Programme
L. van Beethoven: Windoctet in Es, op. 103; Trio in G for flute, bassoon and piano, WoO 37 | Rondino in Es for windoctet, WoO 25; Quintet in Es for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon, op. 16

06 April, 2014 13:00 -- AMUZ

Katarina Livljanic‘ and Joško Caleta, supported by their respective backing of classically educated musicians and folk musicians, explore popular belief and pagan rituals from medieval Bosnia-Herzegovina. The spiritual experiencing of the human alpha and omega inspired them for a production with incantations and powerful hymns between East and West.
Medieval Bosnia was surprisingly rich in terms of spiritual traditions: catholic, orthodox, jewish, muslim, but also heretic persuasions coexisted concurrently. Their vestigial remnants survive in liturgical manuscripts, but also in contemporary religious practice. Searching between the broken fragments of conflicts from a distant and near past, Dialogos and Kantaduri engage in a quest for sounds of peace and tolerance, with key moments from (medieval) life as their guideline: birth and death, blessing and curse, invocation of the angels and exorcism!

In cooperation with Fondation Royaumont

Uitvoerders
Dialogos & Kantaduri | Katarina Livljanic‘, artistic direction | Joško Caleta, artistic direction 

11 April, 2014 19:00 -- AMUZ

Stories feed recollections and keep them alive. Each year around Easter the story of Christ’s suffering is therefore narrated again all over the world – a ritual that has taken on a life of its own, also in music. Bach’s setting of the passion story according to John belongs to the top layer of the classical canon: a monumental whole of arias, recitatives, instrumental and choral parts, combining a rich score with a matchless dramatic structure.
The St John Passion was premiered in April 1724 and during Bach’s life there were three reruns that each time slightly differed. Fortunately all pieces of he puzzle are of equal quality, making it fascinating for a conductor to try and sort out his own ideal mosaic! This repertoire belongs to the preferred sphere of activity of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century: exclusively working with specialists in the music of the baroque and the classical era, this international company earned world fame by virtue of its fresh interpretations on period instruments. The powerful and theatrical St John Passion is also top of the bill on their list of favourites – that augurs well!

Performers
Anders Dahlin, evangelist | Konstantin Wolff, Jezus | Lenneke Ruiten, soprano | Rosanne van Sandwijk, alto | NN, tenor | André Morsch, bass | Daniel Reuss, choirmaster | Frans Brüggen, artistic direction

Porgramme
J.S. Bach: St John Passion, BWV 245

Update: Frans Brüggen will not be able to conduct due to health problems. He will be replaced by the talented Daniel Reuss. (Cappella Amsterdam, Rias Kammerchor, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin e.o.) 

12 April, 2014 19:00 -- AMUZ

When Händel traveled through North Italy in the early 18th century, his travel impressions were musically shaped in small-scale, dramatic narratives – cantatas – that were full of formal experiments, melodic-harmonic innovations and other daring techniques which the composer wanted to try out first before using them in greater works. The result? Chiaroscuro scenes abundant in fantasy and emotions, with love as its core: the preferential playground of French top talent Cyril Auvity.
Two seasons ago Cyril Auvity treated AMUZ to an unmatched recital with amorous airs. This time he selected Italian cantatas from Händel’s oeuvre. Flanked by two violinists and a sturdy basso continuo he sketches the ups and downs of Un alma innamorata – a soul in love: a personal view of the spell that love casts on a human being, and the strength that can be mustered up against that predicament.

Performers
Cyril Auvity, tenor | Léonor de Recondo, violin | Birgit Goris, violin | Elisa Joglar, cello | Isabelle Sauveur, harpsichord | Marc Wolff, theorbo

Programme
G.F. Händel: Tu fedel? Tu costante?, HWV 171; Un alma innamorata, HWV 173; Figlio d’alte speranze, HWV 113; Triosonata in g, HWV 391; Triosonata in g, HWV 387

13 April, 2014 13:00 -- AMUZ

The festival starts already before the first note of the opening concert! Tune in to Klara and listen to a preview with artists and other chat show guests. Presented by Nicole Van Opstal. (In Dutch)

22 August, 2014 16:00