Jan Caeyers, the Beethoven specialist par excellence, will delve into Beethovens biography and music and talk about the brilliant composer as well as the tormented man. He will place Beethoven in his historical context, Europe at the turn of the 19th century, and analyse Beethovens work, which became increasingly complex over the years. Three concerts and a lecture performance will illustrate the rich oeuvre of this extraordinary composer.

11 October, 2017 14:00 -- amuz

The history of the organetto and clavicymbalum, typical gothic keyboard instruments, can only be reconstructed as far as the beginning of the 16th century. Is it still possible to find out when the instruments first made their appearance? Was they played in Henry VIIIs time? These questions have led to research into English renaissance composers and the traces of late mediaeval culture in their music. A fascinating dialogue between the past and present by the renowned Tasto Solo ensemble, which was invited to AMUZ to record this music.

12 October, 2017 21:00 -- amuz

B’Rock takes the four elements as a theme to connect the great masters of the French Baroque to Arvo Pärts meditative sound environments. Arvo Pärt wrote Tabula rasa in 1977 for two violins, prepared piano and strings: ethereal music for eternity. Anyone who hears the spine-chillingly dissonant opening chord of the orchestral suite Les Élémens by Jean-Féry Rebel for the first time is likely to assume he is a 20th century composer: in fact he was a member of the Sun Kings Baroque court, where he rose to the highest echelons of musicians under Lullys patronage.

13 October, 2017 21:00 -- amuz

Tom Beghin tells a historically accurate and artistically fascinating story about Beethovens keyboard instruments. In words and music, he explains how Beethoven, with his lifelong experience of the Viennese fortepiano, was inspired twice by exotic pianos: an 1803 Érard and an 1817 Broadwood. Allow yourself to be convinced by a passionate pianist and researcher with three replicas expertly constructed by Chris Maene. This lecture recital is part of the research project Beethoven and his Foreign Pianos that Tom Beghin is engaged in at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent.

The lecture-perfomance is in Dutch.

15 October, 2017 15:00 -- amuz

In his Six String Quartets, Opus 18, the young Beethoven harks back to Haydn and Mozarts string quartets, but also shows how they can be a starting point that takes the composition of string quartets in a new direction: with greater dramatic tension, more contrast and heightened expressivity. His String quartet in A minor, opus 132, composed 25 years later, demonstrates the composers mastery at its height. The slow section with variations, reminiscent of a chorale, is perhaps one of the most beautiful sections of a quartet that Beethoven ever wrote.

22 October, 2017 15:00 -- amuz

Shostakovich completed his 15th and final string quartet in May 1974. The six-part piece is a contemplation of life. Each of the sections is adagio, in powerful contrast to the intense works of the Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya. Her music, which confronts people with their own mortality, sounds like the Russian spring bursting into flower after a hard Siberian winter. It is extremely physical for both the musician and the listener. In combination with works by Hildegard von Bingen, her music gave us a particularly intense concert last season.

27 October, 2017 21:00 -- amuz