Join the fun-loving company on Monday 24, Tuesday 25 or Wednesday 26 August between 6:00 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. for a picnic in the garden of Peter Paul Rubens. You can order a basket with delicacies and wine for two persons:

Toasted farmhouse bread with monastery cheese

Belgian cheese and meat platter

Leek and bacon pie

Cream cheese with chives and radishes

Mixed salad

Fresh fruit

Pastry and dessert

Choice of rosé, red or white wine or Trappist beer

26 August, 2015 18:00 -- rubenshuis

Guillermo Pérez and David Catalunya of the ensemble Tasto Solo, internationally acclaimed keyboard players and winners of the International Young Artists Presentation 2006, perform with soprano Barbara Zanichelli the melancholy rhyming songs from Margaret of Austrias song-book . The manuscript, preserved in the Royal Library in Brussels, is a unique example of the congruence of the content of a song-book with the personal life-style and the emotional world of the patron. Many song texts were written about and for her, among others by court poet Jean Lemaire de Belges. Two poems are by her own hand. The laments refer to the adversity in her marital life (she was widowed twice) and express her most intimate feelings.

26 August, 2015 20:00 -- amuz

When Johannes Ockeghem died in 1497, the music world lost one of his most distinguished representatives. He earned solid reputation as an outstanding singer and a composer of genius, not only in Tours, where he was affiliated with the basilica of Saint-Martin for decades, but also far beyond that region. His death at eighty inspired quite a few contem- poraries to write heart-rending compositions. The French ensemble Diabolus in Musica, conducted by Antoine Guerber, will sing the Missa sicut spina rosam by Jacob Obrecht, a work heavily influenced by Ockeghems style. Pierre de la Rues oppressive farewell composition Plorer, gemir, crier will leave an unforgettable impression as well.

26 August, 2015 22:15 -- st-joriskerk

After the unique nocturnes with Jan Decleir and Marco Beasley viol player Thomas Baeté will take over this year in the pleasant painters studio of Peter Paul Rubens. Together with keyboard player Guillermo Pérez he introduces us into the fascinating world of the simplest polyphony, that of the 2-voice bicinium. The poetic confluence of music, word and painting is inspired by Theun de Vries and his inexhaustible novel The motet for the cardinal. Actor Vic De Wachter evokes the world of the polyphonists, the travels of the singers from the court chapels and the experiences in the newly founded Sistine Chapel in Rome.

Dutch spoken

26 August, 2015 22:15 -- rubenshuis

The young male vocal quartet New York Polyphony, praised for its rich, natural sound that is more powerful and complex than the sum of the parts, has been causing furore on all American stages and slowly but surely conquers Europe to boot. Their headstrong vantage point on the musical heritage of the Low Countries has created a niche for early music in the American world of classical music. And for the trusted public of Laus Polyphoniae they have some beautiful surprises in store as well, such as Adriaen Willaerts 4-part Pater noster and the Missa Pourquoy non, probably Pierre de la Rues first mass.

27 August, 2015 13:00 -- amuz

Petrus Alamire was a man of many talents. He was not only a copier, but also a musician, a merchant, and even a double agent for the French and the English king. The latter, Henry VIII, and his wife Catherine of Aragon, were presented with one of his manuscripts. This splendidly illuminated manuscript is now preserved at the British Library as one of the rarest works from the music collection. Several themes are dealt with in the 28 motets and 6 profane Latin works, including mourning and birth, referring to the difficulties of Henry VIII to engender an heir. The music from this manuscript had fallen into oblivion, but those masterpieces will be resuscitated by David Skinner and his British Ensemble Alamire.

27 August, 2015 20:00 -- st-carolus-borromeuskerk