The Double Life of Anna Danilevskaia
She has been the new artistic director of the Bruges Early Music Festival (Belgium) since January 1, and is the founder of the Sollazzo ensemble. She’s 38. While Bruges is embarking on a new chapter, Sollazzo is taking a decisive step forward with La Flamboyance, a medieval project for twenty musicians to be released on CD in May.
Ten days of Baroque immersion at the opera
In March, Zurich aims to become the world capital of early music: shortly before Easter, from March 20 to 29, the new festival “Zürich Barock” will celebrate its first edition. Created by Matthias Schulz, director of the city’s Opera House, the event–featuring international headliners such as Philippe Jaroussky, Cecilia Bartoli, Max Emanuel Cenčić, and Raphaël Pichon–promises to be one of the highlights of the season. Matthias Schulz offers us an overview of this new format, which he envisions as distinctly international.
Explore the island and meet the partners of Total Baroque
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Early Music Day, celebrated on 21 March, is a collective celebration of early music: discover the programme online, with more than 200 events taking place across Europe and beyond.
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Festival de Saintes (France) is on! Book your tickets for the 55th edition, from July 11 to July 18: musique.abbayeauxdames.org/le-festival-de-saintes
Presto
News of the week
- 7 to 21 June – the 43rd Monteverdi Festival in Cremona (Italy) Poppea, Teti, Didone and Teodora are the four female protagonists of the operas that will be performed at the 43rd Monteverdi Festival in Cremona, entitled ‘Cantami, o Diva!’ which will take place from 7 to 21 June 2026. For two intense weeks, the Lombard city, famous both for being the birthplace of the ‘divine Claudio’ […]
- February 20-26: Vote for the 2nd Early Music TV Award Early Music Television (EMTV), the streaming platform created by the team behind the Oude Muziek Utrecht Festival, is organizing the 2nd edition of the EMTV Awards from February 20 to 26! Voting is open to everyone, and early music lovers can vote for their favorite concert recording from among the more than 450 titles in […]
- From 12 to 28 March, International Bach Festival Stuttgart Under the motto ‘Because we love Bach!’, the 2nd International Bach Festival Stuttgart will focus in 2026 on Bach’s Latin masses, from the Kyrie-Gloria masses to his magnum opus, the Mass in B minor, complemented by compositions by Johann David Heinichen and Jan Dismas Zelenka for the Catholic court of the Saxon electors in Dresden. […]
- A 2026 Grammy Award for Amanda Forsythe and BEMF Soprano Amanda Forsythe and the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) have won the 2026 GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for ‘Ino”, by Telemann. It is performed by soprano Amanda Forsythe, under the musical direction of Paul O’Dette & Stephen Stubbs and conductor Robert Mealy. A thrilling cantata by Telemann, the story of […]
- SPAM light in Berlin: Bach, GDR version The SPAM light (Spandau Alte Musik) festival in Berlin offers the opportunity to (re)discover the life of Johann Sebastian Bach, GDR version, during two evenings of screenings on 24 and 25 February. To mark the 300th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach’s birth, East German television produced a lavish series on the composer’s life in 1983/84. […]
- March 20-29, 2026 – ZURICH BAROCK, a new early music festival Under the leadership of its new director Matthias Schluz, the Zurich Opera House has announced a new annual baroque music festival. A rich program of operas, concerts, and chamber music invites both connoisseurs and newcomers to immerse themselves in the world of early music for ten days. Highlights include the rarely performed tragedy “Scylla et […]
- Salterio masterclasses with Franziska Fleischanderl Do you dream of learning to play the salterio from scratch or improving your skills on this instrument? Sign up for Franziska Fleischanderl’s salterio academy. After several years of research and a thesis on the subject, she is one of the first contemporary musicians to bring the baroque salterio back to life in her historically […]
- 18 concerts at the Regensburg Early Music Festival 2026 Typically scheduled during the Whitsun weekend, the 41st edition of the Regensburg Early Music Festival in Germany will take place 2026 from 22 to 25 May. The festival’s management team – Ludwig Hartmann, Stephan Schmid and Paul Holzgartner – has announced 18 concerts, instead of the usual 16, including three free concerts in the city’s […]
Nuove Musiche
At the sources of Italian Baroque, “Nuove Musiche” brings together Furio Zanasi and Xavier Díaz-Latorre around Caccini and Kapsperger. Between vividly shaped monodies and toccatas for chitarrone, this programme in six “canti” explores the birth of the stile moderno. A Passacaille recording of striking expressive clarity.
Juvenilia
Juvenilia presents the early works of Bach and his contemporaries, revealing their effervescent creativity and inventiveness. Gabriel Smallwood interprets them with finesse and clarity. An album that invites listeners to rediscover the youth of one of the greatest composers of the 18th century.
The Recording that Electrifies the Exodus
The supplications of the chosen people, the relentless yet exultant unleashing of the Plagues of Egypt, and the brilliance of divine triumph over paganism all feature in the new recording of Israel in Egypt, released by Alpha Classics.
Our series
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A sopranist physician's diary (1 to 3) Philipp Mathmann, soprano and countertenor, performs on the world's greatest opera and concert stages, while also pursuing an equally demanding career as a physician. Here, he offers a deeply personal account of his daily life.
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Lucile Richardot’s Diary (1 to 3) During the summer of 2025, at the Salzburg Festival, French mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardot recounts her experiences behind the scenes of Handel's Giulio Cesare, in which she played Cornelia in a production directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov and conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm. Between cargo bike rides, persistent rain, marathon rehearsals, fights on stage, bruises on her body, stress before the dress rehearsal, and a lost contact lens, she delivers the diary of an intense and unique artistic adventure, divided between rehearsals, stage performances, and moments of everyday life.
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The Diary of Julie Roset (1 to 3) At 28 years old, young French soprano Julie Roset is making her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York… She tells us about her daily life and behind the scenes at the MET, from October 6 to November 7, 2025.
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Musical Europe of the Renaissance (1 to 4) Belgian musicologist Jérôme Lejeune, director of the Ricercar label, invites you to rediscover in this four-part series the musical ferment of Renaissance Europe, at the crossroads of circulating ideas, aesthetic upheavals, and great personalities.
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The Leuven Chansonnier (1 to 3) Rediscovered by chance at an auction, a long-forgotten 1470 manuscript—now known as the Leuven Chansonnier—has been brought back to life through music. Its rebirth takes the form of a 4-CD set by Anna Danilevskaia and her ensemble, Sollazzo, that revives the musical splendour of the French court in the Loire Valley.
