Anima Eterna Brugge . Jos van Immerseel

Although Anima Eterna began as a Baroque ensemble more than twenty-five years ago, Jos van Immerseel and his musicians very quickly proved that they are equally at home in the nineteenth century. Proof of this is also given by this varied programme of the sparkling new music that was being heard in Europe in the early nineteenth century. The brightest sparkle comes from the stunning opera overtures of Rossini. Using carrousel effects, clashing cymbals and lively galops, this Italian composer turned the genre into something truly spectacular. North of the Alps, in the meantime, composers were casting around assiduously for new musical forms. Schubert, for example, sketched out new symphonic paths in his Unfinished Symphony, but came up short with the goal in sight. Mendelssohn, with his popular Violin Concerto, created a new framework for the virtuoso genre, giving violinist Midori Seiler the opportunity here at this concert to demonstrate her flashing finger-work.