November 2013: Baroque Music

The young Polish harpsichordist with the Cohaere Ensemble talks about the Early music scene in Poland, her investigations into music of 18th-century Danzig, one of Europe’s most cosmopolitan cities.

Renowned Japanese conductor returns to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra to perform unusual music from Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda – an influence on Robert Schumann, who described him as “unique in the world of symphonies”.

We talk to Baroque violinist and folk fiddler Ida Meidell about being at the intersection of folk music and Early music, and the richness of the wider scene across Scandinavia.

Lute player and guitarist Élodie Brzustowski talks about the challenges of the two-metre long theorbo, rediscovering guitar music of the 1830s, and the multifaceted Early music scene in France.

Thomas Leininger’s Baroque-inspired children’s opera at Geneva’s La Cité Bleue is a unique stylistic departure, which asks the essential question: what happened to the dinosaurs left off Noah’s Ark?

We talk to young recorder player António Godinho about the burgeoning Early music scene in Portugal – and the music of Vicente Lusitano, Europe’s earliest recorded composer of colour.