Veszprém Early Music Days

The 7th Veszprém Early Music Days are approaching. The one-week festival hosts mostly chamber music groups and smaller vocal groups performing early music. The concerts take place in the 18th century Jesuit church in a quiet valley of Veszprém, a location perfect to the event. In the current edition of the festival you will have the chance to enjoy the music of the 13th century performed by Tasto Solo (Spain), 16-18th century masterpieces for string instruments performed by Les Basses Réunies (France), among several Hungarian ensembles, such as Concerto Armonico, Budapest Bach Consort.

The early music movement is trying to revive the musical legacy of these past centuries as far as it is possible. Faithfulness is multifold: beyond authentic musical material, it also means performing on period instruments (mostly copies or reconstructed instruments), in a historically informed way, sometimes in a historical ambient. The historically informed performance does not simply mean the reconstruction of these old instrumental techniques, but also the improvisations unfolding the basic theme. Instruments used in early music are acoustic, gut-stringed, woodwind, etc. they sound softly and gently compared to their modern correspondents. Most of the surviving works are solo pieces or music adaptable to chamber ensembles. These genres do not live in large concert halls, but in small chamber rooms, church acoustics, or home concerts. In these spaces, the relationship with the audience is also much more direct and intimate.