Flemish composer Pieter van Maldere (1729-1768), born and died in Brussels, was an important trailblazer of the classical style. All of his symphonies, surely his most interesting works, are three-part compositions in the early classical style. Quite noteworthy is the fact that each orchestral part is given a clear-cut role: the bass part, which is fully developed, is not merely there to fill in the harmony, joined in by the violas in parallel intervals; the second violins often play around the first violins in quick runs. The first violins for their part carry the melodic weight of the music. The part of the wind section is more than a merely supporting one as it is allowed to display its capacity to add supplementary colour to the music.
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)’s earliest symphonies are also typically marked by this early stage in the development of the classical symphony. B’Rock, led by Frank Agsteribbe, uses this programme to explore the line between baroque and early classical music.
For this concert B’Rock partnered with Kristian Bezuidenhout, one of the world’s leading pianoforte players. In Haydn’s ‘Concerto for pianoforte’ the South African conjures up a wide array of colourful tones from this eighteenth-century precursor of the modern pian