Merlijn Doomernik

Roel Dieltiens, Bart Naessens & Ageet Zweistra / When the Cello Began to Sing

Fri 30 Oct 17:00

Studio 1

tickets

30 Oct

17:00

tickets

Brussels Cello Festival 2026 À LA CARTE

20% off when you buy at least 3 tickets for different concerts of your choice during the 2026 Brussels Cello Festival. Excluding the concert on 30 October 2026, ‘Strauss: Don Quixote’.

Program

Domenico Gabrielli
Sonata in G major for cello and basso continuo
Grave – Allegro – Largo – Prestissimo

Domenico Gabrielli
Canon for two cellos

Domenico Gabrielli
Sonata in A major for cello and basso continuo
Grave – Allegro – Largo – Allegro

Francesco Geminiani
Sonata in D minor for cello and basso continuo, Op. 5 No. 2 (H.104)
Andante – Presto – Adagio – Allegro

Giovanni Battista Bononcini
Sonata in A minor for cello and basso continuo
Andante – Allegro – Minuetto I – Minuetto II

Domenico Gabrielli
Ricercar No. 7 for solo cello

Antonio Vivaldi
Sonata in B-flat major for cello and basso continuo, RV 46
Preludio – Allemanda – Largo – Corrente

Willem de Fesch
Sonata in A minor, Op. 13 No. 6, for cello and basso continuo
Larghetto – Alla breve – Allegro

artist(s)

Roel Dieltiens, cello
Bart Naessens, organ & harpsichord
Ageet Zweistra, continuo cello

When the Cello Began to Sing

Long before the cello became one of classical music’s most beloved solo instruments, a handful of pioneering musicians were discovering just how much it could do. At the heart of this programme is Domenico Gabrielli—one of the first great cello virtuosos and among the earliest composers to give the instrument a true solo voice—alongside music by Bononcini, Geminiani, Vivaldi and the Dutch-born Willem de Fesch.

Internationally renowned cellist and early-music pioneer Roel Dieltiens is joined by Bart Naessens and Ageet Zweistra on period instruments, bringing audiences remarkably close to the sound world in which the cello first stepped into the spotlight. Noble and intimate one moment, dazzlingly virtuosic the next, these works reveal a familiar instrument at the exhilarating beginning of its story. A fitting Prelude to the Brussels Cello Festival: come hear when the cello began to sing.

In the context of