Deep remorse and the longing for divine redemption are two of the central topics in the cantatas of Northern German Baroque composers. Griet De Geyter and Il Gardellino have selected three exemplary works in this genre by Dieterich Buxtehude, Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach, giving special emphasis to the clearly led voice and striking expressivity of the young Belgian soprano. The emotional climax is Bach’s cantata with obbligato oboe “Mein Herz schwimmt im Blut” BWV 199, which is based on Christ’s parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. The programme is complemented by an instrumental sonata by Buxtehude and two organ versions of the chorale “Jesu, meine Freude”, played by Leo van Doeselaar.
Full of fire, spirit, and life”: this description of the Bohemian composer Josef Mysliveček’s character was made by none other than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his younger contemporary. Mysliveček (1737-1781) spent his entire career in Italy and committed himself to the life of a freelance composer: he obstinately refused to accept any type of employment in permanent service. Not only did he...
Niccolò Jommelli was one of the most sought after composers of his time, but finally accepted to become musical director at the court of Stuttgart in 1753. Three years later he composed his Requiem to commemorates the recent death of the Duchess von Württemberg, mother of his patron, the Duke Carl Eugen..
Despite the fact that Jommelli owed his fame almost exclusively to his operas during his...
Brahms composed only a small number of original works for piano four hands, but arranged almost all of his chamber music and orchestral works for this instrumentation. He played most of them immediately after their completion with Clara Schumann and greatly appreciated her opinion. In his Hungarian Dances Brahms brilliantly transformed original Hungarian melodies and rhythms into multi-coloured...
Vienna. 1803. George Bridgetower, a violinist of Afro-European descent, causes furore with his virtuosity and captivates Beethoven, who writes a devilish and magnificent sonata for his unique and exotic character. Despite the premiere’s enormous success performed by both of them, an unfortunate comment by the violinist about one of the composer’s female friends leads to this famous sonata being...
During the height of its popularity, from the mid-16th century into the 18th, the cornetto was frequently depicted in art as an instrument of angels. Paintings, sculptures, and engravings abound in which the cornetto takes a prominent place among choirs of angelic musicians, usually paired with at least one voice and with other instruments such as the organ, viol, lute, harp, violin and...
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sei Solo for unaccompanied violin figure amongst the baroque works on which the performance traditions of the 19th and 20th centuries weigh most heavily. Rediscovered halfway through the 19th century after having been forgotten for more than a century, these works quickly entered the repertoire of works performed by violinists during the Romantic period: from that moment...
Just like most German composers of his time, Telemann was very well acquainted with the stylistic developments in the other European countries, Italy and France in particular, and in his own compositions he assimilated the various national styles: the Lully Ouverture, the stylized French dances and the Italian trio sonata and concerto. Telemann’s contribution to these forms and genres was...
Artist(s):Elinor Frey, Suzie Leblanc, Lorenzo Ghielmi, Esteban La Rotta Composer:Angelo Maria Fiorè (1660-1723), Marc’Antonio Ziani, Carlo Monza, Paolo Magni (1650 ca. - 1737)
