a small selection of our programs...
(New programs 2017-2018 please visit our Dutch page "programma's", it's in English...)
Program 1: Biber's Mystery
Biber’s Rosary Sonatas are considered to be the absolute top in terms of virtuoso scordatura music for violin. This program lets you travel to the Salzburg Cathedral in 1676, where these sonatas were performed. A passage through time, its colours, its mysteries… American violinist Maia Silberstein and keyboardist Bart Rodyns form a well-trained duo since their first meeting at the MAFestival in 2007, where they gained considerable success with the concert program “Il Canto d’Orfeo”. Together, they will unveil the mysteries of these Sonatas!
Line-up - 2 musicians: violin, organ/harpsichord
Program 2: Concerto delle Donne
This program refers to the three celebrated female singers at the court of the duke of Ferrara in the sixteenth century. The latter was such an admirer of female voices that he founded a “concerto delle donne”, bringing together the best sopranos in whole Italy chosen for their magnificent voice and their ability to sing the most exuberant ornaments. Without claiming the same fame and exclusivity, the Euterpe Baroque Consort follows this tradition and performs motets and madrigals by e.g. Claudio Monteverdi and Giacomo Carissimi.
These vocal works are alternated with instrumental treasures!
Line-up - 5 musicians: 3 sopranos, cello, organ/harpsichord
Program 3: G.F. Handel & M. Corrette: The Keyboard Concerti (released on CD in February 2015)
Two top composers, four keyboard concerti, one organ, one harpsichord and a string ensemble: baroque in its purest form! G.F. Handel was in his own day famous for his inimitable style as an organist and improvisator. When he settled for good in London, he published pretty quickly a series of organ concerti, on the one hand to fill the gap between two larger works, on the other hand to attract the audience to operas and oratorios thanks to his excellent reputation as a soloist. His French counterpart M. Corrette also played an essential role in the development of the keyboard concerto in France. His Six Concerti (op. 26) were published only 20 years later. As a matter of fact, M. Corrette travelled before 1773 to England where he must have heard of the Handel phenomenon.
Line-up - 6 musicians: solo organ/harpsichord, 2 violins, viola, cello & double bass
Program 4: Music For A While...
England and France, London and Paris, “yes” and “oui”… so many things stand between Henry Purcell and Michel Lambert. But both composers do have something in common: Henry Purcell’s music is the ultimate fusion between the English tradition and the latest baroque trends in France and Italy. Lambert’s works display the same feature, and he was without a doubt the most prolific French composer of the second half of the 17th century. Both Purcell and Lambert wrote intimate songs, often for one vocal soloist and basso continuo: discover Purcell’s contemplative Music For A While and the rich melodious ornaments of If Music Be The Food For Love, as well as Lambert’s emotional Ma belle, si ton âme or the courteous Ombre de mon amant.
Line-up - 3 musicians: countertenor, cello, harpsichord (extendable with 2 violins)
Program 5: Ospedale della Pietà
The ‘Ospedali’ in Venice weren’t hospitals but orphanages, where not only orphans were kept, but also foundlings whose mothers, often courtesans, could not bring up because of their profession. Instead of charitable institutions, the Ospedali increasingly became luxurious convent schools where Venetian patricians would bring their daughters for which they didn’t want to pay a dowry. These girls would receive a kind of preparatory convent education, in which the study and knowledge of music was essential as well as convenient for their social class. The convents organized concerts in the city to make some money. Vivaldi, priest and violinist, was closely related to the Ospedale della Pieta for which he composed his most important concertos and cantatas, just like Legrenzi, Caldara, Galuppi, D. Scarlatti and Hasse.
Line-up - 5 musicians: soprano, 2 violins, cello and harpsichord
Program 6: To be or not to be?
In 1991, the “Shakespeare Music Catalogue” list was published, containing more than 20.000 titles of “Shakespearian music”.
Shakespeare’s theatre plays display numerous fragments that were intended for singing and whose melodies were written and arranged by composers at that time. Furthermore, almost all Shakespearian plays were adapted for the opera…
In a word, there is enough significant material to be found in the works of G.F. Handel (Julius Caesar), H. Purcell (The Fairy Queen and The Tempest), but also amongst contemporaries as J. Blow or J. Dowland.
This concert will shed light on a “relatively” small but diverse selection of Shakespearean music.
Line-up - 5 musicians: soprano, 2 violins, viola da gamba & harpsichord
Program 7: Stabat Mater
Stabat Mater narrates the dramatic story of a mother who loses her son in a horrible way, the latter falling victim to the mysterious whims of society. Pergolesi wrote the most famous Stabat Mater. In 1736, he was asked to replace Alessandro Scarlatti’s version —which until then used to be performed on every Good Friday in Naples— with a new one. Vivaldi composed a considerable amount of works for solo voice, of which the Stabat Mater from 1712 is the best known. The lesser known of these 3 versions is undoubtedly the one by Giovanni Felices Sances. The première of his work didn’t take place in a church or cathedral, but at the Vienna court, more specifically in the private chapel of Emperor Leopold I. Intimacy in all its grandeur…
Line-up - 8 musicians: countertenor, soprano, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass & organ