Huyssen @ 60

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Early @ New Chamber Music by Hans Huyssen, performed on period instruments by the Cape Consort

The Cape Consort, known for its historically informed performances of early music, brings period instruments and HIP to new music. With the German violinist Bettina von Dombois leading a string quartet joined by soprano Antoinette Huyssen as soloist in two works, the Consort presents a program dedicated to the composer Hans Huyssen, on the occasion of his recent 60th birthday.

The selected chamber music works – spanning four decades of compositional activity on two different continents – represent some of the recurrent themes in Huyssen’s oeuvre. Allusions to indigenous South African instruments (Ugubhu), birds (Responsorium) and flowers (Floral Miniatures), as well as to German folk songs (Lovesong Quartets & Trios) and poetry (Brunnenränderlieder), show Huyssen’s fascination with all things rooted, primordial and original, even if they originate in hugely divergent cultural and natural environments. His meticulously crafted music not only reveals a nuanced perception of such qualities, but emulates the very same quality in its musical reflections thereof.

If you have enjoyed the Consort’s articulate renditions of early music, you might even more enjoy this introduction to an altogether new repertoire that is well on its way of becoming early music of tomorrow.

Antoinette Huyssen – soprano

Bettina von Dombois, Ralitza Macheva – Baroque violin

Emile de Roubaix – Baroque viola

Hans Huyssen – Baroque cello

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