Ami d’AMUZ’ Thomas Baeté presents the first part of a new series of concert concepts that he will elaborate in the coming seasons at AMUZ. The idea is, independently from all chronology, to foray into the landscape of music, circling around a certain theme. For starters the theme of melancholy was singled out in all its multifarious appearances. This theme leads Baeté to work by Paolo da Firenze and John Dowland, but also to Béla Bartok’s duets for two violins, to Dmitry Shostakovich’s piano trios and to Benjamin Britten’s magnificent A Ceremony of Carols. Furthermore he ventures into jazz and traditional music. The young Fleming Thomas Baeté studied viol and viola da gamba with celebrities such as Wieland Kuijken, Jordi Savall and Paolo Pandolfo. Today he conquers the international music scene with his own ensembles. In short: this friend of the AMUZ family will fulfil your most exacting expectations!

Performers
Marketa Cuckrova & NN, voice | Romina Lischka, viol | Anne Niepold, diatonic accordion | Jan Van Outryve, lute | NN, trombone & saqueboute | Thomas Baeté, viol & artistic direction

Programme
Paolo Firenze, John Dowland, Benjamin Britten, Béla Bartók, Dmitri Sjostakovitsj a.o.

 

19 March, 2011 20:00 -- AMUZ

The posthumous fame that became Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s share shortly after his premature death at age 26 he owed to the heart-breaking beauty of his Stabat Mater. Many copies and adaptations of this masterpiece were to be found soon all over Europe. Johann Sebastian Bach, too, must have found the composition extraordinary, since he adapted the music for a psalm version in German. Bach’s solo cantatas Ich habe genug and Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke including a marvellous obligato oboe part are, for that matter, by no means inferior as musical expression of religious devotion and breath-taking beauty. This fabulous music is brought by an outstanding cast: soprano Céline Sheen, counter tenor Damien Guillon and his ensemble Le Banquet Céleste, with among others oboe player Patrick Beaugiraud and members of the EDDING Quartet.

Performers
Céline Scheen, soprano | Damien Guillon, countertenor | Patrick Beaugiraud, oboe | Baptiste Lopez, violin | Caroline Bayet, violin | Paul De Clerck, viola | Ageet Zweistra, violoncello | Thomas de Pierrefeu, double bass | Kevin Manent-Navratil, organ

Programme
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Stabat Mater | Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantate Ich habe
genug, BWV 81 – Cantate Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke, BWV 84
 

20 March, 2011 14:00 -- AMUZ

‘Josquin is a kind of Prince of Absolute Clarity’. This accolade for Josquin des Prez bestowed by Philippe Herreweghe during Laus Polyphoniae 2009 revealed his admiration for the craftsmanship of the legendary renaissance polyphonist. Despite the meticulous work  of many researchers Josquin’s biography has not yet been completely puzzled together.  There are even those who claim that the fabulous Josquin is a construction of history:  a figure that never existed in reality and whose oeuvre is the work of many (other) hands . The portraits and the signature that was discovered lately are however evidence to the contr ary: this composer, who knew how to merge word and tone with a sensitivity and expressivity  that was unheard of before, did actually exist and influenced many generations. The Col legium Vocale Gent performs some of Josquin’s top pieces dedicated to the Virgin Mary: for Hereweghe a felicitous return to his early love, polyphony!

Performers
Philippe Herreweghe, artistic direction

24 March, 2011 20:00 -- AMUZ

With a Diapason d’Or award for the recording of Sainte-Colombe’s Concerts à deux violes esgales the ensemble Les Voix Humaines owes it to their reputation to live up to the highest standards in the field of the French baroque repertoire. In this concert programme entitled La Reine Soleil Susie Napper and Margaret Little bring music by Sainte-Colombe, Marin Marais, François Couperin, Jean-Philippe Rameau and Michel Corrette. The Canadian duo has been impressing audiences all over the world since 1995. These players of the viola da gamba, then, make a perfect team. Their musical bonding has been compared in the press to the acrobatics of a couple of trapeze artists or the beauty of two voices intertwined in a love duet. If you want to discover the viola da gamba in its subtlest timbres, this is your cup of tea!

Performers
Susie Napper, viol | Margaret Little, viol

27 March, 2011 13:00 -- AMUZ

Whenever ‘amie d’AMUZ’ Claire Chevallier visits the museum Vleeshuis in Antwerp, she falls under the spell of the aura exuded by one particular item of the collection: the organ console of the Cavaillé-Coll from Sainte Clotilde in Paris, once played by the Belgian-French great master César Franck. The console inspired our house pianist to a unique concert with keyboard music by Alexandre Guilmant, Charles-Marie Widor and, of course, ‘le brave père Franck’. Joining forces with harmonium specialist Joris Verdin, whose recording of Franck’s organ works has been praised to the skies, she evokes the keyboard culture of the 19th century, steeped in a scent of incense as it was. The church was in that era the privileged location for all layers of society to be exposed to ‘great’ music. As of today – anno 2011 – this is the case again at AMUZ!

Performers
Claire Chevallier, piano | Joris Verdin, harmonium

Programme
César Franck: Offertoire in B – Quasi Marcia – Prélude, Choral & Fugue – Prélude, Fugue & Variation, opus 18 | Alexandre Guilmant: Mazurka de Salon, opus 35 – Mélodie, opus 46 – Scherzo, opus 21 – Symphonie d’Ariane | Charles-Marie Widor: fragments out of Six Duos

02 April, 2011 19:00 -- AMUZ

The Dutch harpsichordist, organist and conductor Gustav Leonhardt is one of the international founding fathers of authentic performance practice. In 2007 AMUZ already had the pleasure to host him for a much appreciated recital of German baroque music. This season he leads you to France on the winged strains of Michel Forqueray, Jacques Duphly, Claude- Béninge Balbastre and Louis Couperin. For more than half a century already Leonhardt has been an authority in the field of keyboard music. Therefore it was only logical for him to be honoured with many distinctions. In Belgium, for example, he became a Commander in the Royal Order in 2008, and last year he received from the Dutch Queen Beatrix personally the exclusive Medal of Honour for Art and Science of the House of Orange. Whoever is lucky enough to hear him live, will inevitable come to the same conclusion: this eminence grise cannot be praised enough!

Performers
Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord

03 April, 2011 13:00 -- AMUZ