In his own time, Georg Philipp Telemann was considered one of the best and most versatile musical personalities of the day. The sheer size of the German Baroque composers oeuvre is astonishing: it is currently estimated at more than three thousand works! Telemann was famous far beyond his native Germany for his cantata cycles and oratorios (of which he wrote more than Bach). He wrote even more operas and instrumental music than Handel. Bridging the stylistic gap between the French and German style, his galant compositions form a link between late Baroque and early Classicism.

Artistic director Sigiswald Kuijken has chosen pieces for the trumpet and recorder from Telemanns rich collection of 125 suites and 125 concerti. Jean-François Madeuf is one of the first musicians to breathe new life into the original Baroque trumpet playing techniques. The result is a softer sound that combines extremely well with that of the recorder. With Bart Coen on recorder as Madeufs opponent this concert is bound to be a virtuosic and lively performance.

17 January, 2016 15:00 -- amuz

In 1544 the Schoon Liedekensboeck appeared in the bustling city of Antwerp with its lively literary tradition. The Antwerp Songbook is a priceless source of knowledge about the profane songs of the late Middle Ages. The songs cover all aspects of life at the time when the Middle Ages were drawing to a close: love, faithfulness and adultery, lust and trickery, war and crime, politics, royalty and so on. The fact that we can still sing these songs is thanks to hymnals such as the Devoot ende profitelyck boecxken (1539). Although it warns against frivolous songs of the flesh, it does contain the melodies that go with them.

With its boundless and contagious enthusiasm, the Dutch ensemble Camerata Trajectina has been a familiar part of the folk music and early music scene for forty years. It specialises in Dutch music from the Middle Ages to the Baroque, with the emphasis on song repertoire.

22 January, 2016 21:00 -- amuz

Francesca Cuzzoni, also known as the little siren of the stage, would remain the uncon- tested prima donna of the London opera scene until the collapse of Handels Royal Academy of Music in 1728. Between 1723 and 1728 she sang in more than twenty operas, eleven of which were composed by Handel. He knew her voice better than anyone, and in the arias he composed for her more than eighty altogether he showcased the many different facets of her voice to dazzling effect. Rumour has it that Francesca Cuzzoni was a mediocre actress with bad taste in clothes and more than her fair share of diva affectations. But as soon as she opened her mouth, her astonishingly beautiful voice, perfect intonation and excellent taste immediately captured the hearts of her listeners.

Bennani and Cuzzoni: two sopranos with the same warmth, intensity and precision. Hasnaa Bennani, who has created an international storm, is back again this season with a majestic and deeply emotional performance that is moving in its simplicity, ranging from light playful- ness to moments of repressed rage or astonishing virtuosity.

24 January, 2016 15:00 -- amuz

Florence, February 1625. Maria Maddalena, the Regent Archduchess of Tuscany, is organising a prestigious celebration in her favourite residence in honour of the Polish Crown Prince Wladislaws official visit. One of the highlights will be the production of the commedia in musica La liberazione di Ruggiero dallisola dAlcina, an opera by court composer Francesca Caccini. In the opera, the androgynous good sorceress Melissa and the seductive evil sorceress Alcina struggle for power and control of the young knight Ruggiero. Caccini, the first female opera composer in history, used this allegory to showcase all her talents, with a masterly alternation of gripping recitatives and melodic, ornamented arias, lively choir passages and colourful instrumental sinfonias, ritornelli and intermezzi.

Paul van Nevel and the Huelgas Ensemble sweep us off to the Florentine Villa del Poggio Imperiale in their interpretation of this milestone of Italian Baroque opera.

Attention: this concert lasts longer than usual: 90-100 minutes.

28 January, 2016 21:00 -- amuz

The inventory drawn up in Bachs house after his death described a whole collection of keyboards: four large harpsichords, one smaller one and a spinet. This wealth of keyboard instruments in his home must surely have contributed to Bachs decision to write concerti for several harpsichords. After his 1721 experiment with the fifth Brandenburg Concerto, Johann Sebastian was the first to use the harpsichord as a solo instrument in dialogue with the orchestra in his Concerti per cembalo. Before that, the harpsichord had traditionally been used as a continuo or solo instrument.

Putting Andreas Staier and Petra Müllejans together on one stage is a recipe for pure magic, as you may have witnessed last season at AMUZ. Now they are back, accompanied by the renowned Freiburger Barockorchester led by Müllejans. We can imagine no more fitting farewell to Andreas Staier as our artist in residence (2012-2016) than this concert focused on Bachs harpsichord concerti.

31 January, 2016 15:00 -- amuz

Tasto Solo presents the second part of a trilogy that the ensemble has dedicated to mid-15th century keyboard repertoire. Artistic director Guillermo Pérez has selected ballads and rondeaux by Binchois and Dufay, Ciconia and Dunstable (forerunners of the Franco- Flemish style) and by less well-known authors such as Bruolo en Bedyngham.

Le Chant de Leschiquier is the result of thorough musicological and artistic research: partly an instrumental experiment based on the famous Buxheim Codex (1460), in which Pérez performs the corpus of tablatures with keyboards and harps, and partly an investigation into the enigmatic eschiquiers, small keyboards with strings dating from the late Middle Ages that were played with a plucking or hammering mechanism.

05 February, 2016 21:00 -- amuz