THE MUSIC of two of the great 18th century composers for harpsichord, François Couperin and Domenico Scarlatti, will be performed in Galway at a charity convert for COPE.
The award winning musicians, Belgian Julien Wolfs and Poland’s Pawel Siwczak, will play the Aula Maxima, NUI, Galway, on Sunday April 11 at 7.30pm. The concert is produced by Emerald Concerts in association with Lyric FM and proceeds will go to the homeless charity COPE.
Frenchman François Couperin (1668-1733 ) and Italian Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757 ) are major figures of 18th century harpsichord music but could not be more different.
Couperin is conventional, gentle, and accessible. Scarlatti is a maverick, anti-commercial, going completely off the beaten track. The music will come from Couperin’s four books and Scarlatti’s 555 sonatas.
Couperin's suites will be performed by Wolfs who studied with Menno van Delft in the Amsterdam Conservatoire. He won Second Prize and Public Prize at the Bruges Harpsichord Contest in 2007. He also co-founded his ensemble Estampes with which he was awarded First Prize, Special Jury Priz, and Public Prize at the International Chamber Music Contest of Rovereto (Italy ) for best performance in basso continuo.
Scarlatti's sonatas will be performed by Siwczak. Siwczak received a master of music degree with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London where he studied harpsichord with Carole Cerasi, and the clavichord with Terence Charlston.
He now teaches in the Academy and has been awarded a DipRAM, a special prize for an outstanding final recital and was also the winner of the eighth Broadwood Harpsichord Competition (2007 ) and the Sir Anthony Lewis Memorial Prize (2006 ).
Tickets are €20/15 from OPUS II, The Cornstore (091 - 500300 ) and COPE, 2-5 Calbro House, Tuam Road (091 - 778750 ). See also www.emeraldconcerts.ie
