B’Rock Orchestra opens the 56th edition of the Varaždin Baroque Evenings with music from three worlds that helped shape 18th-century Europe. From Pergolesi’s Naples, via Vivaldi’s bustling Venice, to Benda’s refined court life in Berlin, a thread runs through which religious expression, urban energy and court culture constantly merge. Vocal guests include the Belgian soprano Céline Scheen and countertenor Philippe Jaroussky.
Vivaldi is heard in two guises: the Concerto for Strings in G minor RV 157, and the motet Filiae maestae Jerusalem, in which theatre and church seem to meet. In Benda’s Violin Concerto in B flat major, the elegance of Frederick the Great’s Prussian court comes to the fore, with our concertmaster Evgeny Sviridov in the leading role.
The programme culminates in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, written in the final months of his short life. With astonishing immediacy, the work unites stillness and emotional intensity in music that, almost three centuries later, still feels just as close to home.
As the opening concert of the 2026 edition, the programme will be broadcast live on television. The project is led by Philippe Jaroussky.
This production is realized with the support of the Tax Shelter measure of the Belgian Federal Government through Flanders Tax Shelter.
