Into the deep: live laboratory of classical music - J.S. Bach: Sonatas & Partitas

“Into the depths. The live laboratory of classical music.” After the success of the previous edition of De Diepte In – with famous artists who gave a unique insight into their artistic laboratory and special instrument collections – music storyteller Stef Grondelaers continues to build on the same recipe this season. (Inter)national top performers bring live music by Bach, Schubert and Brahms, and engage in conversation with Stef about the soul and mystery of great masterpieces, and about the (musical) language that drives these jewels. We situate the music in its historical context, leaf through letters from and to the composers, dissect the notation and look at exceptional instruments. From the front row, you get a rare insight into the artistic laboratory of our guests, with the opportunity to ask questions and meet the artists personally. Finally, the musicians let the masterpieces we explore together come to life live, so that insight and listening experience deepen each other in an exceptional way. “You are alone” January 31, 2027 – J. S. Bach: Sonatas & Partitas – Emmanuel Resche-Caserta (violin) Around 1720, Bach wrote, in addition to his Cello Suites, the equally enigmatic Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin. On the title page he noted Sei solo, literally “six solos” in Italian, but just as well “you are alone”. A telling ambiguity that fits wonderfully with this music. In these works, the violinist is indeed alone. Without a safety net, but burdened with the task of evoking a complete musical world. That is not only a technical challenge – making multiple voices and lines audible on one instrument – but also an existential one: giving meaning to a mystery that is only partially noted and only fully comes to life in the performance. Generations of musicologists have pondered the mathematical symmetries, hidden structures and esoteric riddles in these works. In the famous Chaconne, some thought they heard Bach as a man of flesh and blood mourning his wife Maria Barbara. As fascinating as such questions and hypotheses are, they ultimately pale in comparison to that which eludes any musicological or philosophical explanation: the transcendent beauty of the music itself. We undertake this great adventure with the French-Italian violinist Emmanuel Resche-Caserta, one of the most exciting young talents in early music. He studied in Paris and perfected himself in historical performance practice with specialists such as Enrico Onofri, François Fernandez and Monica Huggett. Since 2017 he has been concertmaster of the internationally renowned ensemble Les Arts Florissants van William Christie. In that capacity, he played at the Opéra de Paris, the Lincoln Center and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. In addition, he regularly leads ensembles such as Le Poème Harmonique, A Nocte Temporis, Il Gardellino and Tiento Nuovo. With his own ensemble EXIT, he develops original programs around rarely performed baroque repertoire, including music from Southern Italy and reconstructions of historical concert practices. Since 2019 he has been playing a Francesco Ruggeri-violin from 1675. “Without saying anything, there is nothing to sing either” February 7, 2027 – F. Schubert: Lieder – Dietrich Henschel (baritone) & Bobae Cho (piano) In his short life, Franz Schubert wrote more than 600 songs that radically changed the genre. In Schubert's work, the piano began to play a much more active role, no longer as an accompanist, but as a dramatic partner, atmosphere creator and set painter. What makes Wat Schubert truly special is that he realized like no other that the underlying poem – its language, sound, grammar and meaning – is the true engine of the songs: the music follows, reinforces and reveals what lies contained in the words. Ook Johann Michael Vogl, the baritone who first performed Schubert's songs, knew that all too well: he always told his students “if you have nothing to say to me, you have nothing to sing to me either”. Vogl is of course no longer here, but we are incredibly proud that the famous German baritone Dietrich Henschel Schubert is going to let us speak and sing, and that you will be able to experience jewels such as An die Musik, Ganymed, Gesänge des Harfners and Erlkönig in the best imaginable interpretation. De Duitse baritone Dietrich Henschel enjoys international fame as an opera singer, song interpreter and concert soloist. His breakthrough came with the title role in Busoni's Doktor Faust, a production awarded with a Grammy Award. He performed in major opera houses and built a versatile repertoire, from Monteverdi and Mozart to Wozzeck and contemporary creations. Composers such as Péter Eötvös, Unsuk Chin and Detlev Glanert wrote roles especially for him. On the concert stages, he worked with conductors such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Sir Colin Davis. A special love of Henschel is the song repertoire, in which he collaborated with renowned pianists such as Helmut Deutsch and Irwin Gage. De Zuid-Korean pianist Bobae Cho discovered her passion for piano at a young age and made her solo debut at the age of twelve in the Kumho Art Hall in Seoul. She studied in Seoul, Berlin, Leipzig and Hamburg, where, in addition to solo piano, she focused in particular on chamber music and song accompaniment. Since then, she has performed in, among others, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Frauenkirche in Dresden and various European music cities. As a versatile pianist, she has worked with famous singers such as baritone Dietrich Henschel. She is currently a repetiteur at the Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria von Weber” in Dresden and active as a freelance pianist, chamber musician and song accompanist. “The clarinet has the last word” February 21, 2027 – J. Brahms & F. Poulenc: Clarinet Sonatas – Roeland Hendrikx (clarinet) & Marie François (piano) Johannes Brahms was about to retire when he met the exceptional clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld. His warm tone and expressive playing unexpectedly brought the composer back to creating, and inspired him to a series of late masterpieces, including the Clarinet Trio, the Clarinet Quintet and two clarinet sonatas. In those sonatas, no youthful bravado resonates anymore, but a quiet, inward-looking world full of intimacy, tenderness and almost melancholic lyricism. Ook Francis Poulenc found in the clarinet an ideal – and ultimately also last – speaking voice. Zijn Klarinetsonate, completed shortly before his death, connects Parisian elegance and playful lightness with moments of sudden depth and moving melancholy. There are no better partners in Belgium than Roeland Hendrikx (long live his color and rhetorical power!) and Marie François, whose playing contradicts and nuances, to let this music speak for us while playing, and to let it sing while speaking. De Belgische clarinetist Roeland Hendrikx is considered one of the leading clarinetists of his generation, praised for his precision, poetry and warm, expressive tone. As a soloist, he has performed with numerous renowned orchestras, culminating in a Mozart tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Edward Gardner. His great love for chamber music brought him together with musicians such as Severin von Eckardstein, Jan Michiels and ensembles such as the Doric Quartet, Danel Quartet and the Berliner Philharmoniker Streichquintett. His acclaimed recordings include works by Mozart, Finzi, Bruch, Weber and Brahms. From 1998 to 2017 he was solo clarinetist of the Nationaal Orkest van Belgi«. In addition, he is a teacher at LUCA School of Arts Leuven and the Conservatorium Maastricht. De Belgische pianist Marie François is considered a striking and versatile