Great stories, great feelings, people and society are reflected in our heroines and heroes. In a rich programme of Baroque opera excerpts, B’Rock Orchestra, together with the ideal partner in pleasure soprano Jeanine de Bique and our Vocal Consort, explores what we can learn from our legends. How can we deal with loss, with intense joy, with light and dark? We ask Dido, Alcina… and discover what they have been whispering to us for centuries.
(Photos: Björn Comhaire)
Beethoven’s Piano Concertos as you have never heard them before: Alexander Melnikov, member of our Artistic Family, and the musicians of B’Rock provided their vision and interpretation of Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto in a well-conceived (and entertaining!) semi-staged format, then perform the full concerto for an audience of activated listeners.
(Photos: Fabian Schellhorn)
Together with singers from the International Opera Academy, B'Rock performed music from Handel’s operas Acis & Galatea, Orlando, Alcina and more during Muziekcentrum De Bijloke's Coté Jardin. Featuring Agata Kowalik (soprano), Ecem Topcu (soprano), Eriko Hashimoto (soprano), Ernestine Jost (soprano), Kwanhee Park (tenor), Oleksandra Kuzmina (mezzo-soprano), and SoJin Yang (baritone).
(Photos: Jens Compernolle)
The opening of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater must be one of the most beautiful dissonances in all of music history. René Jacobs – pater familias of the B’Rock family – picked Bach's cantatas Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust and Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut to fill out a program we toured to the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence, as well as to Rouen, Grenoble, La Rochelle, Eisenach.
(Photos: Caroline Doutre)
The Great Themes of life invariably lead to Great Art. And what subjects are more essential than life and death? In a delicately balanced program, B'Rock navigated between frisky joy and intense sorrow, between exuberant jollity and hushed consolation, between, well... life and death. Top Dutch mezzo Olivia Vermeulen joined Kalle Kalima, composer and guitarist for a project traveling to, among other places, the Thüringer Bachwochen.
(Photos: Björn Comhaire)
In Schubert/Haydn, we took a close look at the Fifth and Eighth symphonies. René Jacobs's interpretation is highly individual, sparkling, fresh and distinct, as if the score had only yesterday rolled off the press. In between times, Nicolas Alstaedt resolves his demons in Haydn’s virtuoso First Cello Concerto.
(Photos: Davy De Pauw)
Discover B’Rock and soprano Ilse Eerens juxtaposing Händel's Neun Deutsche Arien with brief compositions by the Antwerp composer Wim Henderickx. The stage concept was provided by Chinese theatre director Shuang Zou and Muziektheater Transparant.
(Photos: Koen Broos)
