ALEXANDER VON HEISSEN

Once a member of the four so-called »pop stars« of 4 Times Baroque, now a successful soloist: at the age of 30, Alexander von Heißen is already deeply immersed in the world of early music and enthusiastic about various historical keyboard instruments. At the Ludwigsburg Festival, he will perform a solo programme on the harpsichord dedicated to imaginative works from the circle of Johann Sebastian Bach. The compositions are by both contemporaries and members of his own family. Two suites by Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, harpsichord master to the French Sun King Louis XIV, will open the evening. Bach and his son Wilhelm Friedemann admired his artistic ornamentation and kept a copy of d’Anglebert’s ornamentation table in their private music library. English works by William Byrd and Georg Friedrich Handel are also among his influences. Handel and Bach never met in person, but they shared the same year of birth and a close friendship with Georg Philipp Telemann. In his solo programme, award-winning harpsichordist Alexander von Heißen strikes a balance between imaginative indulgence and technical brilliance with his fresh, lively interpretations.