A musical journey through baroque Italy

The classical concert series ‘Technopolis 20 Classics’ present the last concert of the season with two exceptionally talented, world-class musicians, the Swiss recorder player Maurice Steger and the Sicilian lutenist Daniele Caminiti, on Sunday, 5th of June 2022. This time the concert will take place in a different venue, at Tala Amphitheatre, with the impressive view and point of the beautiful sunset of Paphos.

Legendary Maurice Steger has been called "the world's leading recorder player" (The Independent) or an "electrifying and inspiring conductor" and being mentioned as a “recorder player in a million” (The Times). In order to live up to such high expectations, one requires not only astonishing technique, but also charisma, intellect, and a special sensitivity for the music. Maurice Steger has been proving all of this to his audiences, inspiring with his intense tone and unstoppable energy in various concert formats across the world, receiving popular and dithyrambic critical acclaim. As a remarkable performer he enabled audiences to see the recorder in an entirely new light. He dedicates himself to a continuously updated repertoire of Early music and through his own unending thirst for knowledge, he succeeds time and again in showing how much there is still to be discovered about Baroque music.

The multi-award-winning classical guitarist and lutenist Daniele Caminiti is also dedicated to the study of early music played on historical instruments such as renaissance lute, archlute, theorbo, baroque and romantic guitar. Born in Sicily, Caminiti graduated in classical guitar at the ‘Conservatorio’ in Pescara, he continued at the Music Academy in Basel (Switzerland) and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. His graceful, incisive sound has delighted audiences across Europe, where he has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in high-profile ensembles and orchestras, often playing with renowned artists. During the last years Daniele has also made numerous recordings for some of the most important labels and radio channels such as the Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Deutche Harmonia Mundi, Harmonia Mundi France, Sony BMG, Channel Classics, BBC.

Programme of the concert will include works by Giovanni Adolfo Hasse, Salomone Rossi, Marco Uccellini, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, Francesco Geminiani, Andrea Falconiero, Giuseppe Sammartini, Alessandro Piccinini and Alessandro Scarlatti. The selection of the programme shows the broad horizons that opened behind the simple concept of an epoch and how far the path was from the experiments that composers such as Salomone Rossi or Marco Uccellini made at the beginning of the 17th century, to those that gradually became more solid Forms of the so-called High Baroque. Here we find composers such as Francesco Geminiani, Giuseppe Sammartini and Johann Adolf Hasse, the famous import from Saxony, who earned the name "il divino Sassone" with his music in the land of lemons.

The instrumental duo of Maurice Steger, the “Paganini of the recorder”, and his partner Daniele Caminiti have not only the technical, but above all the emotional means to bring the up to four-hundred-year-old creations to contemporary life.

https://maurice-steger.com/

https://www.icmsbasel.com/copy-of-daniele-caminiti

Doors Open 19:30, Concert starts 20:00

Entrance: €15 / €5 (students)

Reservations are necessary.

Information, Reservations & Tickets: 70002420

Supporter: Tala Community Council

Hospitality Sponsor: Annabelle Hotel

Sponsor: Vouni Panayia Winery, Photo Larko

PROGRAMME

Giovanni Adolfo Hasse (1699-1783), Cantata per flauto in D Dur (Allegro) – Adagio – Allegro

Salomone Rossi (1570?-ca.1630), Sinfonia 11 in Eco, Aus: Il primo libro delle sinfonie, per sonar due viole, Venezia 1607

Marco Uccellini (um 1610-1680), Sinfonia 14 La Foschina, Aus: Sinfonie boscareccie op. 8 a violino solo e basso, gedruckt: 1660, 1669 und 1677 in Venedig

Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger(1580-1651), Toccata Arpeggiata e Colascione per tiorba solo

Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762), Sonata d Moll für Blockflöte und basso continuo, Adagio – Allegro – Largo – Vivace

Andrea Falconiero (1585-1656) - Canzoni napolitani (1625), Il Spiritillo – El Melo – La suave melodía

INTERVAL

Giuseppe Sammartini (ca. 1693 – 1750), Sonata G Dur für Blockflöte und b.c., op. 2

Andante – Allegro – Affettuoso – Allegro assai

Aus: Six solos for a German flute, violin or hautboy, London 1760

Alessandro Piccinini (1566-1638), Toccata XIII per-tiorba solo

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), Variazioni sulla Partite di Follia di Spagna Napoli, ca. 1716

A few words about the musicians

MAURICE STEGER

“Maurice Steger's virtuosity and sense of style are admirable"

It is not surprising that he is called "Paganini", "wizard", "the world's leading recorder player" or an "electrifying and inspiring conductor". In order to live up to such high expectations, one requires not only astonishing technique, but also charisma, intellect, and a special sensitivity for the music. Maurice Steger has been proving all of this to his audiences, inspiring with his intense tone and unstoppable energy in various concert formats all over the world.

As a soloist, conductor, or both at once, he regularly performs with the top period instrument ensembles, such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, La Cetra Baroque Orchestra Basel, Venice Baroque Orchestra, The English Concert, Il Pomo d’oro or I Barocchisti. He also performs with leading modern orchestras such as the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Canadian Violons du Roy, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Musikkollegium Winterthur and the NDR Radiophilharmonie. It always astonishes that all these orchestras sound transformed after a period of work: sonically sensitive and individual, always historically informed, and playfully expressive in the here and now.

Chamber music plays a notable role in the richly varied spectrum of Maurice Steger's artistic endeavours. With fellow musicians and friends such as Hille Perl, Rachel Podger, Avi Avital, Daniele Caminiti, Sebastian Wienand, Diego Fasolis, Sol Gabetta and the French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, he dedicates himself to a continuously updated repertoire of Early music. Also, he is available for experimental or new formations, for example, he performs with the pianist Martin Stadtfeld and the percussionist Christoph Sietzen. Within the framework of a world premiere, together with the Kuss Quartet, Steger will apply himself to a new concert form in 2021.

Maurice Steger loves the interaction between different cultures and getting to know other ways of working and interpretive approaches, working as a concert artist, professor, and juror not only in Europe but throughout the world. Tours through North and South America, Asia and Australia have brought him together with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. He was the first recorder player from the West to perform with the Traditional Taipei Chinese Orchestra.

His commitment to musical education is also extremely important to him: besides the directorship of the Gstaad Baroque Academy at the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, which he took over in 2013 in addition to diverse master classes, he invented the character of Tino Flautino in order to encourage young children to playfully engage with classical music. The recorder playing Tino Flautino is a children's hero in Steger's home country, Switzerland, and the musician now presents his latest adventure with the tomcat Leo Leonardo in many countries and languages.

Through his own unending thirst for knowledge, he succeeds time and again in showing how much there is still to be discovered about Baroque music.

For example, on his recording Souvenirs, he presented works that he found in the private library of Count Harrach in Naples. His album Baroque Twitter with the Basel Chamber Orchestra and the singer Nuria Rial was inspired by birdsong.

The latest recording, Mr. Handel's Dinner, with La Cetra Barockorchester Basel was released in the spring of 2019 and reflects on Handel's opera performances and especially their intermissions in London. The recording was received with enthusiasm by listeners and the press.

Steger regularly tracks down baroque and early classical rarities, conducts and plays them or releases them on CD. Maurice Steger has received many awards for his work, including the Karajan Prize and the ECHO Klassik.

One sometimes wonders where Maurice Steger finds all the energy with which he has helped the recorder to make a comeback, as Arte recently presented in a documentary The Recorder: A Comeback.

But when you see how much love for the recorder, the music, and the audience he demonstrates in each of his many projects, it becomes clear that Maurice Steger is carved from the same special material as his beloved instrument.

DANIELE CAMINITI

Daniele Caminiti was born in Sicily. He graduated in classical guitar at the “Conservatorio” in Pescara and studied for three years with Oscar Ghiglia at the Music Academy in Basel (Switzerland), where he obtained the Concert Diploma with the honor “excellent”. As soloist he has won many prizes in various national and international competitions. He has dedicated himself to the study of early music played on historical instruments such as renaissance lute, archlute, theorbo, baroque and romantic guitar. He studied with Peter Croton at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where he also worked for several years as official accompanist on plucked instruments.

His intense musical activity includes performing as soloists as well as chamber musician in important ensembles and orchestras, often playing with renowned artists, such as Andrea Marcon, Giovanni Antonini, Enrico Onofri, Ottavio Dantone, Diego Fasolis, Attilio Cremonesi, Rubén Dubrovsky, Michael Hofstetter, Jörg Halubek, Christian Curnyn, Rachel Podger, Chiara Banchini, Julia Schröder, Maurice Steger, Sergio Azzolini, Antonio Politano, Alfredo Bernardini, Marc Hantaï, Jesper Christensen, Jörg-Andreas Bötticher, Pierre-André Taillard, Edoardo Torbianelli, Cecilia Bartoli, Bernarda Fink, Veronica Cangemi, Sonia Prina, Roberta Invernizzi, Maria Cristina Kiehr, Andreas Scholl, Magdalena Kozena, Patricia Petibon, Claire Lefilliâtre.

During the last years Daniele has also made numerous recordings for some of the most important labels and radio channels: Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Deutche Harmonia Mundi, Harmonia Mundi France, Sony BMG, Pan Classics, Glossa, Channel Classics, Tactus, MV Cremona, Rai Radio 3, Schweizer Radio 2, Österreichische Rundfunk, Arte, BBC.

He regularly plays, both as a soloist and continuo player, with many baroque ensembles and orchestras, such as "Venice Baroque Orchestra", "Giardino Armonico", "La Cetra", "Kammerorchester Basel", "I Barocchisti", "Bach Consort Wien", "Il Gusto Barocco", "Holland Baroque Society", "Zürcher Barockorchester", soloists of "Bayerischer Rundfunk”. He often takes in part in Opera productions in renown theaters such as Basel, Zürich, Luzern, Biel-Solothurn, Wien, Linz, Amsterdam, München, Frankfurt, Kassel, Innsbruck, Aix en Provence.

Since several years he teaches lute (and several plucked strings instruments) and chamber music at the summer courses of „Gstaad Baroque Academy”.

Besides, he has been studying conducting under the guidance of Mario De Rose, argentinian conductor currently based in Vienna. Daniele made his debut as a conductor in May 2017, leading the orchestra of “Teatro Vittorio Emenuele” in his hometown…

At the moment he is also working with the New York composer Raphael Fusco on a special programme for his lute duo.

Daniele regularly performs in the most renowed and prestigious concert hall through all Europe: Vienna, Parigi, Milano, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Zurigo, Londra, Monaco, Francoforte, Berlino, Madrid, Santiago de Compostella, Lisbona, Riga, Tallin, Istanbul, New York, Washington, Philadelphia.