Paul Van Nevel and his Huelgas Ensemble are a familiar presence at our festival for early music, Laus Polyphoniae. For this concert, he has made a surprising choice of more recent work: choir songs and motets by Max Reger (1873-1916). As an organist, Reger was familiar with Bach’s polyphony and his compositions strived for architectural beauty with melodic and imitative magic. As he does in his performances of Renaissance music, Van Nevel colours this repertoire with the intense beauty of his singers’ voices. Huelgas Ensemble will be accompanied in several of the works for choir by the pianist Jos van Immerseel, who casts his gaze back over music history with Busoni’s piano adaptation of Bach’s famous Chaconne for violin.
Program
M. Reger: selection of motets and choir songs | J.S. Bach / F. Busoni: Chaconne
Performers
Paul Van Nevel, artistic director | Jos Van Immerseel, piano
