We are very pleased to have on offer 3 interesting and varied programmes:








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“Obscuro Fantasticus”


The Stylus Fantasticus is the name for a genre of virtuoso chamber music, originating from Italy in the early 17th century. This style moved up through Austria and spread out all over Europe extending its influence as far as England, Germany and Denmark. Often driven along by ostinato bass patterns, the music is remarkable in its unending energy, its florid solo lines and its inherent freedom. Composers in this style inevitably pushed the boundaries of “correctness” not only in their work however, but also in their often turbulent social lives. This programme gives a panorama of the Stylus Fantasticus as it travelled through Europe and recounts some of the dramas that crossed the paths of the musicians.




“La Rameau”


The Pièces de Clavecin en Concerts shine as a gem out of the baroque chamber music repertoire. They are a series of five suites published in 1741, when Jean Philippe Rameau had reached full artistic maturity, and even contain a self-portrait of the composer.
His only output of instrumental chamber music, they are designed around five groups of pieces for violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord in which all instruments fight for musical and technical dominance over one another. In typical Rameau fashion, he rejects the traditional trio-sonata model of two solo lines over a basso continuo, instead giving the harpsichord a new protagonistic role on par with the others.
Many of the movements, as pièces de charactère, bear titles that can encapsulate human characteristics, represent traditional dances, or pay tribute to illustrious patrons, noblemen and composers of the time. Rameau said “I try to conceal art with art”, and in this innovative collection of pieces we often find traditional binary dance forms in glittering new clothes – a gavotte swimming in humour, a sarabande clouded by love and tenderness.


Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
Pièces de clavecin en concerts (1741)
La Coulicam - La Livri - Le Vézinet
La Laborde - La Boucon - L’agaçante - Premier menuet, Deuxième menuet
La Lapoplinière - La timide - Premier tambourin, Deuxième tambourin
La pantomime - L'indiscrète - La Rameau
La Forqueray - La Cupis - La Marais



“Der Zauberkreis”


The Magic Circle of Bach’s influence was such that not only did it reach beyond his own family, land and lifetime, but to generations of students and the whole of Europe for centuries to come. So powerful was his Zauberkreis that during its zenith the name “Bach” was synonymous with “musician”.
In this programme, taking the pinnacle of Johann Sebastian Bach as a departure point, we trace a direct path through his second son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach to the pre-classical partnership of Abel and Johann Christian Bach, who as a teacher of the young Mozart extended Father Bach's influence further than he could have imagined.