Long before Mozart's divertimenti and serenade music, wind players loved to play music in the fresh air, and if the weather plays along, this will also be the case at the walking concert of the oboe band La Petite Ècurie. And with good reason - after all, the concert is in the Schwetzingen Palace Gardens, where Verschaffelt's sculptures of the river gods of the Rhine and Moselle by the lake widen the view towards the neighboring European countries. These are the focus of the program Oboes on a European Tour, which presents music of the High Baroque in several national styles. The present-day countries of France, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy and Austria are the stops on a walk that playfully circles around the most fascinating contradictions of Baroque music: only the basso continuo as a fixed rule enables the greatest possible melodic freedom; as a unifying and binding idea, it also makes individual national styles possible. And who invented it? The Florentines!

Oboen auf Europareise

Schwetzingen Palace Garden

It is a story about friendship and the power of making music: In the land of oboes and bassoons, everything is fine. People play, laugh, argue and make up again. But suddenly a thundering storm breaks out: everything freezes and becomes quiet. Then someone comes along who sounds completely different, completely strange and new. Can this newcomer break the rigidity and create a new harmony? And can the message he brings with him in a secret language be deciphered?

sound explorer

Rococo Theater

Quiet inside, loud outside. String instruments inside, wind instruments outside, especially those that were particularly en vogue in the Baroque era: oboes. The French-Italian ensemble La Petite Écurie (three Baroque oboes, bassoon and percussion instruments), founded in 2018, and its repertoire are in the great tradition of outdoor sound festivities that were fashionable in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially at French and English courts. The name of the troupe refers to the large stable in Versailles, where not only horses were ridden, but music was also made (often both at the same time). But this evening's program has little to do with volume. La Petite Écurie span a wide range of emotions and sounds; they dream of love with Henry Purcell's Fairy Queen , give their hearts away to the sounds of Bach's St. Matthew Passion - and finally cry the most beautiful tears of sound in music history with Handel's Rinaldo . Short electronic recordings and texts connect the pieces of music and tell of the different faces of love.

Marc Bonastre Riu

Events

Upcoming events

May 17, 2025

Oboen auf Europareise · SWR Symphonieorchester

May 18, 2025

sound explorer · SWR Symphonieorchester

May 18, 2025

La Petite Écurie & Miriam Feuersinger · SWR Symphonieorchester

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