The Unbearable Lightness of Bohemia
From 11 April 2025 to 11 April 2025/ Finland / Helsinki
Polyphonic music for ensemble and orchestra
Muffat–Biber
Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch, violin and leader
Finnish Baroque Orchestra
Finnish Baroque Orchestra
Marianna Henriksson, programme planning
FiBO and the violinist Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch set the table with Bohemian and Austrian delicacies. The music of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and Georg Muffat charms with its fantastic qualities, its artful polyphony and its surprising forms.
Biber (1644–1704) was the greatest violin virtuoso of his time. He was born in Bohemia, but he defected to the service of the archbishop of Salzburg while he was on duty visiting a Tyrolean luthier. Muffat (1653–1704) was born in Savoy and studied with Lully in Paris in his teens. Muffat fled from France and the threat of war. He tried his luck in Prague, but settled down as the organist of the archbishop in Salzburg. The two great musicians were never close.
Biber’s compositions were known all over Europe. His polyphonic sonatas (1676) are seldom performed but are well suited for “both altars and halls”. The expression is reminiscent of older polyphony and folk music.
Muffat was given permission to make a journey to Italy in the beginning of the 1680s and while he was in Rome he met Corelli. Delirium amoris (The Delirium of Love, 1701) is a concerto grosso with an orchestration typical of Corelli. The reasons behind the juicy title are unknown. The music of Armonico tributo (1682) is equally both deeply spiritual and gracefully terpsichorean.
Kaakinen-Pilch was concertmaster of the renowned Collegium Vocal Gent for over a decade. She has taught in Finland as well as in Poland, Germany, Norway and Denmark.
