With this programme, B’Rock presents a selection of composers from the vanguard of the classical turnover in the European art music. The composers of this programme did not allow their creativity to be restrained by limitations of an official function, nor by any geographical borders or musical overregulation. This way they have -from their personal environment- given impulses to the development and spread of the new musical spirit that would soon pervade all of Europe.
Around 1770 Ghent was, both geographically and musically, considered a European authority. The Loeillet family played a leading role in this: six members of this family from Ghent took on important musical functions in Flanders and abroad. Among them Jacques (Jacob) Loeillet who was in the service of the Prince-Elector of Bayern and later made career at the court of Louis XV in Versailles.
Contemporary George Friederich Haendelmanaged to make career in London with his operas and oratorios. But he also dedicated himself to instrumental music. In his ‘Concerti grossi opus 6’ (1739) he demonstrates an impressive mastery of the varietas principle. His blends of styles and own inventions inspired many of his contemporaries. Among them Henri-Jacques De Croes: composer-violin player and Kapellmeister at the Brussels court of Charles Alexander of Lorraine. De Croes’ sonatas and concerti were exponents of the crossover style that was typical of the instrumental music of the Southern Netherlands at the time.
De Croes’s successor as first violin at the Brussels court was his former pupil Pieter Van Maldere, today best known for his sinfonias. Van Maldere is considered to be one of the major pioneers of the symphonic prime under Haydn and Mozart.
And even more than Van Maldere, the evolution of the the instrumental music of Early 18th century Europe is embodied by Georg Philipp Telemann: one gaze at his concertos (hundreds of them!) reveals an exhaustive collection of all forms, styles and techniques that were current at the time.