Early Music Festival

2-6 March 2016

Beyond the masterpieces and gems of music history, there will be hidden treasures and big revelations awaiting the visitors of the second Müpa Budapest Early Music Festival. Although this time the focus of the Festival is on the music of the French baroque era, the seven grand concerts held between 2 and 6 March 2016 will also feature compositions of Bach and Haydn.

On 2 March the first grand concert features two grandiose Te Deum compositions by Charpentier and Lully, in the rendition of the world famous Poème Harmonique and Capella Cracoviensis. The next day one of Hungary’s oldest early music ensembles, Capella Savaria performs Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos, these true masterpieces of baroque music. On 4 March two promising young talents have the stage: the Baroque aria evening will feature soprano Emőke Baráth and countertenor Valer Barna-Sabadus, singing some beautiful pieces by lesser known composers and accompanied by the Il Pomo d’Oro ensemble from Italy. On 6 March the concert opera performance of Mondonville’s Isbé by the Orfeo Orchestra and the Purcell Choir, conducted by György Vashegyi, promises to be the one of the most sensational events of the festival. This will be a modern day premiere, as this piece has never been staged since it premiered in 1742. Nightingale – Rossignol, a concert of Márta Sebestyén reveals a completely different face of early music: renaissance and baroque pieces, the music of Provence and Hungary in a spontaneous, direct style of performance.

The 2 March concert of the Budapest Strings in the Glass Hall features pieces of French composers and Haydn’s Symphony No. 85 in B-flat major (La Reine). Two days later, also in the Glass Hall, the Mélange Baroque concert offers a unique performance: passages from the works of rarely played French baroque composers are linked together by inserting movements into one another to create a brand new musical experience.