From Palermo to Rio, from Dresden to Sydney, Baroque music is on the move. A look back in pictures at some of this week’s highlights — a journey through discoveries, encounters and celebrations of early music across the world. 
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7th Baroque Music Week in Rio (Brazil)
As part of the 2025 France–Brazil Season organised by the Institut Français, the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles (CMBV) revived its French Baroque Music Week in Rio de Janeiro, combining masterclasses, lectures, rehearsals and a final concert with the UNIRIO Baroque Orchestra, founded and directed by flautist Laura Rónai, and bringing together musicians from all over Brazil. Between 2016 and 2021, the CMBV had established a partnership with several cultural institutions in Rio, creating a festival dedicated to students, amateurs and professionals alike. This year, the CMBV breathed new life into this unifying and emblematic event, which concluded with a concert featuring French works by Rameau, Lully, Boismortier and Clérambault.
With the Orchestre baroque de l’Université UNIRIO and Laura Rónai.
Il Gardellino in Palermo (Italy)
As part of the 67th International Sacred Music Week of Monreale in Palermo, the Baroque ensemble Il Gardellino (pictured here in rehearsal), directed by Peter Van Heyghen, presented the Italian premiere of Adam and Eve by the Bohemian composer Josef Mysliveček, to a libretto by Giovanni Granelli. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Monreale Cathedral also hosted five other free concerts, including a performance by the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana and the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chor Hamburg, conducted by Hansjörg Albrecht, with soloists Lenneke Ruiten and Patrick Grahl, in a diptych combining Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Morgengesang am Schöpfungsfeste (“Morning Song for the Festival of Creation”) and Telemann’s Die Tageszeiten (“The Times of Day”).
With Rodrigo Carreto, Rita Filipe, Roberta Mameli, Alison Lau, Il Gardellino and Peter Van Heyghen.
The Tallis Scholars’ Australian Tour
After performances in Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane, The Tallis Scholars, under the direction of Peter Phillips, concluded their Australian tour with a return — after twenty-five years — to the Sydney Opera House (pictured). The programme featured music by Hildegard von Bingen, Allegri’s Miserere, Obrecht’s Salve Regina, Josquin des Prez’s Renaissance masterpiece Praeter rerum seriem, and Da pacem by contemporary Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.
With The Tallis Scholars and Peter Philips.
Heinrich Schütz Festival in Dresden
Among the many concerts of the Heinrich-Schütz-Fest 2025, one held in the lower hall of Dresden’s Frauenkirche (pictured) featured the Hathor Consort, directed by Romina Lischka, performing works by Heinrich Schütz, Johann Christoph Bach, Matthias Weckmann and Franz Tunder. The festival’s 2025 artist-in-residence, Gregor Meyer — conductor, choir director, pianist, organist and composer — explored connections between seventeenth-century music and contemporary themes drawn from science and society. This “dialogue between eras” also brought together quantum physicist Elena Hassinger, meteorologist and future astronaut Insa Thiele-Eich, writer Eric Wrede, and the Clara-Wieck High School Chamber Choir.
With the Hathor Consort and Romina Lischka.
Don Quixote at the Pavia Festival (Italy)
As part of the P.A.V.I.A Festival, the Orchestra Ghislieri, directed by Giulio Prandi, joined forces with the Stivalaccio Teatro company to present Don Quichotte – Symphony for Windmills at the Teatro Fraschini in Pavia. Honest, fearless, yet forever at the mercy of his own obsessions, the knight of La Mancha has inspired many composers to set his ill-fated adventures to music. The encounter between the theatre company and the orchestra gave rise to a production that blurred the boundaries of the stage, drawing the audience into the heart of the action.
With the Stivalaccio Teatro company, the Orchestra Ghislieri and Giulio Prandi.
Lautten Compagney Berlin wins its second Opus Klassik Award
The Opus Klassik Awards Gala 2025, broadcast by German TV channel ZDF, took place at Berlin’s Konzerthaus. Lautten Compagney Berlin was honoured as Ensemble of the Year for the second time, following its first award in 2019. Together with saxophonist Asya Fateyeva, the ensemble performed Dancing Queen – Rameau meets Abba at the closing gala. Among the other winners in the “Early Music” categories were the French ensemble Le Concert de la Loge, directed by Julien Chauvin, and choreographer Mourad Merzouki, recipient of the Innovative Concert of the Year award.
With Asya Fateyeva and the Lautten Compagney Berlin.
Baroque Tempests in Nice
At Nice’s Sainte-Réparate Cathedral, art met science as the Ensemble Baroque de Nice, conducted by Gilbert Bezzina and joined by soprano Heather Newhouse, presented Baroque Tempests — a concert closing a day of study and dialogue between music and the sciences. The event was organised by IReMus (French Institute of Musicological Research) and the GeoAzur Geosciences Laboratory (a French research centre specialising in earth and environmental sciences), with the support of Ifremer (the French national institute for ocean science and technology).
With Heather Newhouse, the Ensemble Baroque de Nice and Gilbert Bezzina.
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