Erik Bosgraaf & Baltic Baroque Orchestra Bach Orchestral Suites

LIFEM Presents: Erik Bosgraaf & Baltic Baroque OrchestraFor our closing festival performance, LIFEM's Artistic Director, recorder virtuoso Erik Bosgraaf, joins forces with the Baltic Baroque Orchestra for a showstopping performance of Bach Orchestral Suites.Johann Sebastian Bach's four Orchestral Suites, known in his own manuscripts as Ouvertures, stand among the finest achievements of Baroque orchestral music. Probably composed and revised during Bach's years in Kothen and Leipzig, these works reveal a composer who absorbed the elegance of the French court style while enriching it with German contrapuntal mastery and his own inexhaustible imagination.Each suite follows a pattern established by the French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully: a grand opening overture consisting of a stately dotted-rhythm introduction followed by a lively fugal section. Bach then presents a sequence of stylized dances, transforming forms originally associated with courtly entertainment into sophisticated concert music.Erik Bosgraaf is generally considered to be one of the world's leading recorder players, and he is definitely the most adventurous. He improvises, plays jazz, utilises electronics and likes working with people in other areas of artistic endeavour such as cinematography (Werner Herzog, Paul and Menno de Nooijer). His repertoire extends from Vivaldi's Four Seasons to tomorrow's music. Bosgraaf's recording of Jacob van Eyck's Der Fluyten Lust-hof set a new standard and led to his international breakthrough. Many other hits followed, mainly for the Brilliant Classics label. Around 100 pieces have been composed for him, among which are 12 concertos.The Baltic Baroque Orchestra is a new musical ensemble that had its first concerts at the 2024 Narva Opera Music Festival. The orchestra consists of the best musicians from the Baltic states who have mastered the performance of historical instruments. The orchestra also collaborates with the finest Baroque singers from Latvia and Lithuania. The concert program "Baroque Opera Gala" was particularly splendid at the Narva Opera Festival. The core of the orchestra is formed by the Baroque orchestra Collegium Musicum Riga.Programme:Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
The Four Orchestral Suites (Ouvertures)
Suite No. 1 in C Major, BWV 1066
Suite No. 2 in B Minor, BWV 1067
Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068
Suite No. 4 in D Major, BWV 1069Erik Bosgraaf recorder, harpsichord, direction
Baltic Baroque Orchestra
Tomoe Badiarova leaderThis concert is included in the LIFEM Festival Pass and LIFEM Saturday Day Pass.
For more information about the London International Festival of Early Music, please visit our website: www.lifem.org