Anima Eterna Brugge - Jos van Immerseel

'Back to the source, duty bound but free', is the motto of Jos van Immerseel and his orchestra Anima Eterna. From a small baroque ensemble, the company has grown into a full symphony orchestra where the musicians and the array of instruments for each project are tested against and related to historical performance practice. In the course of its career, this Flemish ensemble has repeatedly pushed the boundaries: following Bach they tackled the Viennese classics, followed by the Romantics and most recently even the 20th-century repertoire. In this concert, the musicians concentrate on the early Romantic period, in a contrasting musical sketch of the year 1830. In his 'Symphonie Fantastique', Hector Berlioz extols the amorous adventures of a young artist. The work is a milestone in the Romantic orchestral repertoire. It represents a synthesis of Beethoven's sense of monumentality in his Third and the extra-musical programmes in his Sixth with a French sense of fresh sound colours. By contrast, in Chopin's First Piano Concerto, one senses the spirit of Mozart, whose elegant melodies find their way into a carefree virtuoso banquet for ten fingers.