Girolamo Frescobaldi & György Ligeti, two kindred spirits

The pianist Rik Kuppen and the baroque ensemble Castello Consort present a double portrait of the 17th-century, Ferrara-born Girolamo Frescobaldi and the 20th-century Hungarian György Ligeti. Both composers amazed their contemporaries with their inventive compositions and the new timbres in their music.

Ligeti paid homage to Frescobaldi with his multi-volume piano cycle Musica ricercata: fascinating music that begins minimalistically and grows richer and more complex. While Monteverdi was composing his groundbreaking operas 350 years earlier, Frescobaldi was writing surprisingly virtuosic pieces for harpsichord and instrumental ensemble. Music that still moves us today.

The Paleiskerk will be transformed for a moment into St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, where Frescobaldi was organist, with his virtuoso pieces for wind instruments: baroque trombone and dulcian.

Menno van Delft, one of Holland’s most prominent harpsichordists, performs solo pieces by Frescobaldi as well as Ligeti’s iconic harpsichord pieces Continuum and Hungarian Rock.