You may be familiar with the summer afternoon concerts at the Brussels Conservatorium and the Zavelkerk of the Festival Midis Minimes. But just a stone's throw away from there, there is also, from Tuesday to Friday an afternoon concert, a very interesting and perhaps less well-known summer festival: the Musicorum Festival. These concerts take place in a hall with an entrance at the stately Paleis van Karel van Lotharingen on the Museumplein, in the ultra-modern "Auditorium 490 Philippe Roberts-Jones" of the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. With its 360 seats, it was quite full on that warm August afternoon. They came to listen to a duo with an unusual lineup. These were Bernard Woltèche, cellist and on bassoon and recorder, Jérémie Papasergio. Both professional musicians and teachers. And the small ensemble of these two friends bears the name "Les Amis de Clematis"
They are more than accomplished baroque soloists. And that was evident from their programme. The opening was for a sonata for two bass instruments by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, and these were bassoon and cello here. Bodin de Boismortier was a popular and extremely prolific French baroque composer who could live abundantly from his work without sponsors. The two musicians played fluently and cheerfully with the cello and the bassoon alternating at the fore. Listening to that delightful conversation, I almost automatically think: how swinging baroque music can sound. Then we heard two uplifting and familiar-sounding pieces, based on melodies by contemporary Jean-Philippe Rameau, "Les gentils airs Tambourine et Les Sauvages" in a version for our two instrumentalists. Completely virtuously followed that popular "Folia", this time the one Arcangelo Corelli wrote on 1 January 1700. It is a theme whose melody actually nobody still knows where it comes from. The bassoon was here exchanged for the recorder. What control of this beautiful instrument, with each time that beautiful dialogue with the cello. Quietness came when cellist Bernard Woltèche brought a couple of pieces from the Suite no. 3 by Johann Sebastian Bach. And as a finale came one of the few sonatas that were explicitly written for these two instruments together. It comes from Mozart who made it when he was 19 years old. A nice, young and humorous composition. A very successful performance by a lesser-known ensemble at a lesser-known Brussels afternoon festival, at a lesser-known venue. Highly recommended to try out. Moreover, it is free to access, you pay 5 € for a programme and you can also make a donation.
I also want to mention this. In the autumn, cellist and teacher Bernard Woltèche with his ensemble of the Collegium Musicum will perform Purcells Dido en Aeneas at the Brussels Conservatorium. The direction is in the hands of Sigrid T'Hooft, the specialist of authentic performances that were characteristic of the time of their creation. Undervalued in her own country, but renowned internationally. Another recommendation.