MAURICE STEGER

A BAROQUE BANQUET

The much-awaited return performance of the brilliant recorderist Maurice Steger.

He has been celebrated as the “the Paganini of the recorder” by music critics and been succinctly described as “the world’s leading recorder virtuoso” (the Independent) – today Maurice Steger is one of the most fascinating recorder players, ­conductors and musical professors working in the sphere of Early music. In these different capacities, he thrills ­audiences around the world with a variety of concert formats.

Maurice Steger is an incredibly charismatic ­musician: spontaneous, captivating and full of energy. With his vibrant manner, intense and full instrumental sound and amazing technique, this “recorder wizard” has managed to bring to prominence the recorder as an instrument in all its fascinating forms. The 2015 ECHO Classic Award which he received as “­Instrumentalist of the Year” is testimony to his ­success.

In his concerts, Maurice Steger takes listeners on a spellbinding musical journey, with every piece of music offering something to discover. As a soloist, conductor or both at once, he regularly performs with the top period instrument ensembles, such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the ­Venice Baroque Orchestra, the English Concert, La Cetra, the Lautten Compagney and I ­Barocchisti. He also performs with leading modern orchestras such as the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, the Musikkollegium Winterthur, the Berlin Baroque Soloists (Berlin Philharmonic), the Canadian Violons du Roy, the Chamber Orchestra Basel or the NDR Radiophilharmonie.

Chamber music plays a notable role in the richly varied spectrum of Maurice Steger’s artistic ­endeavours. With fellow musicians and friends such as Hille Perl, Marco Postinghel, Xenia Löffler, Daniele Caminiti, Naoki Kitaya, ­M­auro ­Valli, ­Sebastian Wienand and Fiorenza de Donatis, he dedicates himself to a ­continuously updated repertoire of Early music. He also performs with artist colleagues such as Cecilia Bartoli, Andreas Scholl, Pablo Heras-Casado, Laurence Cummings, Nuria Rial, Bernard Labadie, Sandrine Piau, Diego Fasolis and Sol Gabetta. Along with early music, Maurice Steger also engages with new concert formats and contemporary compositions.

Tours of Asia and Australia have led to performances with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Taipei Symphony among others. He was the first recorder player from the West to perform with the Traditional Taipei Chinese Orchestra. He also regularly performs in North and South America.

His commitment to musical education is also extremely important to him: in order to encourage young children to playfully engage with classical music, he invented the character of “Tino Flautino”, and has performed hundreds of children’s concerts in this role. For his latest musical fairytale, he invented “Pinocchio and the recorder player”. Maurice Steger also gives various master classes each year, and in 2013 took over the directorship of the Gstaad ­Baroque Academy at the Menuhin Festival Gstaad.

‘Mr. Corelli in London’, ‘Una Follia di ­Napoli’, ‘­Vivaldi: Concerti per flauto’ and ‘Telemann: ­Recorder Works’ with The English Concert, I ­Barocchisti and the Akademie für Alte Musik ­Berlin: numerous award-winning CD recordings ­published by ­harmonia mundi, most of them with highly ­imaginative thematic concepts, are a long-standing testament to the unique prominence achieved by this artist.

The current music project “Souvenirs d’Italie” with exciting new discoveries from the Naples of the ­early 18th century has already won many of the most ­important international record awards.

Artists
Les Violons du Roy
Maurice Steger, direction and recorder

Program
HANDEL Suite of dances excerpted from HWV 1, 287, and 399
HANDEL Recorder Concerto in F Major, after Sonata HWV 369
PURCELL Timon of Athens, “Curtain Tune on a Ground”
PURCELL Chaconne in G Minor
FINGER A Ground
BABELL Recorder Concerto in D Major, Op. 3 No. 1
AVISON Concerto Grosso No. 3 for Two Violins and Cello
GEMINIANI Recorder Concerto in G Major, after Sonata, Op. 5 No. 11

Friday, February 14th 2020 at 7:30pm
Duration: 1 Hrs 30 Min

Subscribe to the series by phone and save up to 25%: 514-285-2000, option 4, or 1-800-899-6873
Every day from 9 am to 5pm or in person at the ticket booth of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
For tickets and information: www.mbam.qc.ca/en/concerts 514-285-2000

Bourgie Concert Hall, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) complex, is a 444-seat venue located in the restored Erskine and American Church (designed in 1894 in Neo-Romanesque style by architect Alexander Cowper Hutchison). Designated a national historic site in 1998, the transformed setting is now graced with high-quality acoustics and an exceptional décor incorporating 20 historic Tiffany stained glass windows. Ideal for performances by chamber-music ensembles, string orchestras, and other groups, Bourgie Concert Hall offer music lovers an auditory repertoire as diverse as the MMFA collections.

Bourgie Concert Hall
1339 Sherbrooke Street West