Lamentations

Guest performance

Guest performance

Collegium Vocale Gent “Et in arcadia ego”: Italian madrigals of the 16th century

Arcadia is the land of eternal sunshine and unclouded joy – but death also afflicts those who dwell there. A musical memento mori: in an affecting programme of vocal music, Collegium Vocale Gent conducted by Philippe Herreweghe explores the sound worlds of the late Renaissance and early Baroque

Wiener Sängerknaben

The Vienna Boys' Choir is the world's most famous boys' choir. Its roots trace back to 1498 (!), and among the choir's former members, you'll find classical giants like Joseph Haydn and Franz Schubert. Now, the choir is making a rare guest appearance at the Concert Hall, featuring Swedish music!The diverse programme showcases many facets of the choir, with much of the music specially arranged for this occasion. Before the interval, the classical dominates with music by Purcell, Mozart, Schubert, Verdi, and Orff, among others. And, of course, there's the quintessential Viennese with both Strauss waltzes and a polka.After the interval, there are also some Swedish elements, such as Gabriella's Song from the film As It Is in Heaven, and ABBA's Mamma Mia and Thank You for the Music. Perhaps not what one might expect from the Vienna Boys' Choir! This part also includes jazz, musicals, and even Italian crooning – Volare (actually titled Nel blu dipinto di blu) and O Sole Mio!

Monteverdi: L’incoronazione di Poppea

Claudio Monteverdis letzte Oper »L’incoronazione di Poppea« besticht mit ausdrucksvoller, facettenreicher Musik. Eine erstklassige Sängerschar und die renommierte Cappella Mediterranea unter Leonardo García Alarcón erwecken dieses frühbarocke Meisterwerk zum Leben.Poppea Sabina, die schönste Frau Roms, setzt alles daran, Kaiserin an der Seite von Kaiser Nerone zu werden. Macht und Leidenschaft stehen im Zentrum von Claudio Monteverdis Opernknüller über diese Frau. Dank ihrer packenden Interpretation lassen Leonardo García Alarcón und sein Alte-Musik-Ensemble Cappella Mediterranea das Publikum mitfiebern in der konzertanten Aufführung dieses eindrucksvollen Dramma per musica. Die junge belgische Sopranistin Sophie Junker begeistert in der Rolle der Poppea.

FEL!X. Coline Dutilleul | B'Rock

The House of Arenberg, one of the oldest dynasties in the Eifel region, expanded its power to the Netherlands and Belgium from the Middle Ages. Passionate about the arts, the family's private music collection dates to the late 17th century. Belgian mezzo-soprano Coline Dutilleul and B'Rock Orchestra showcase the family's extraordinary musical legacy with works by Vivaldi, Handel, Campra, and other contemporaries.

Emmanuelle Haïm

Emmanuelle Haïm, born in Paris in 1962, got her passion for Baroque music from her aunt – from whom she also received her first piano lessons. Today, the conductor and harpsichordist is one of early music’s shining stars, a baroque icon among aficionados. Her musical intensity is captivating, and is characterized by boldness, charm, and flexibility. And the BRSO also treasures these qualities. When Haïm conducts Purcell’s lesser-known semi-opera (a setting of A Midsummer Night’s Dream), it will be her eagerly awaited second appearance with the orchestra since 2017. Since she is particularly known for her performances of Handel (a composer whose music features prominently in her discography), the concert will also include a large suite, the dazzling Music for the Royal Fireworks, as well as an Italian cantata, sung by the wonderful Dutch soprano Lenneke Ruiten, that showcases Handel’s intimate side.

Concerto Köln

Soprano Jeanine De Bique from Trinidad and Concerto Köln bring heroic female figures to life in arias and orchestral works in the Great Hall. The basis is the singer's debut album 'Mirrors', which “from furor to goosebumps, from breathtaking coloraturas to sensual, beautiful, simple melodies” revels in the entire range of baroque opera emotions.

Guest performance Ave Maria

Christmas Concert

Elsa Benoit, photo: James Bellorini Christmas motifs have been written into numerous pages of Western classical music, and not only on the occasion of the festivities that open the carnival season. In the second movement of George Frideric Handel’s Concerto a due cori, one can easily recognise an excerpt of the joyful, punctuated rhythm of the chorus Lift up your heads from the Messiah’s second movement, which tells the story of the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Johann Sebastian Bach, fulfilling the demands of the Protestant liturgical calendar by the sweat of his brow, wrote many works for the Christmas season. In so doing, he also drew inspiration from Italian musicians, including the composer of the famous ‘Christmas Eve’ Concerto Grosso in G minor, Arcangelo Corelli. Bach’s showstopping solo cantata Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen suited a variety of festive occasions due to its universal, laudatory text. Its virtuosic coloratura parts require soprano and trumpet soloists of the highest calibre. Christmas themes can also be found in the text of the Credo. One of the most beautiful passages in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Mass in C minor – not without reason referred to as the ‘Great’ – is the expansive, mellifluous aria ‘Et incarnatus est’ from the Credo. Mozart wrote it with his vocally gifted wife Constanze in mind, just as years before he had penned the showstopping motet ‘Exsultate, jubilate’ for the famous Italian soprano Venanzio Rauzzini.