Music in the Cathedral
The Cathedral hosts no less than three permanent concert series! In addition, special concerts can be heard regularly, in keeping with the Cathedral's mission to bring religious music within the appropriate time frame. On Holy Days the traditional Easter and Christmas concerts resound and the weekly Mass celebrations are graced by both well-known melodies and special pieces from the organist's personal repertoire.
Every first Sunday of the month is 'Organ Sunday'. At 11.45 am, there is a free concert in the Cathedral Organ on Sunday series, in which the two great Cathedral organs, the romantic Schyven organ and the baroque-style Metzler organ, play a starring role.
Later that day, at 4 pm, the monthly Sunday Music will sound from the choir loft around the Schyven organ or from one of the chapels. In this intimate concert series, music director and organist Peter Van de Velde has planned the most surprising programmes, usually in collaboration with another instrumentalist or singer. Here you can get a taste of the atmosphere. Sunday Music is free to residents of the province of Antwerp. For other visitors, the standard entrance fees for the Cathedral apply.
During the summer months, visitors to the Cathedral can listen to afternoon concerts in the Orgel na de Noen (Organ After Noon) series. On Friday afternoons in July and August between 12.45 and 1.30 pm, organists from home and abroad take turns behind the Schyven organ or the Metzler organ. Tickets cost €12 and are available on the day at the entrance counter of the Cathedral.
Once a year - usually in the month of June - the Cathedral is home to the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. Information and ticket sales for this concert are via www.antwerpsymphonyorchestra.be.
PROGRAMME
From April 2024
Sunday 7 January 2024, 11.45 am: Cathedral Organ on Sunday
Peter Van de Velde plays music for the Easter period on the Metzler organ. To be heard are the Regina Caeli by Peeter Cornet, the resurrection chorale Christ lag in Todesbanden by Franz Tunder, the 4th sonata by Felix Mendelssohn and the 1st movement from Charles Villiers Stanford's Sonata Eroica, based on the Gregorian Victimae Paschali.
Sunday 7 April 2024, 4 pm: Sunday music
Violinist Nadja Nevolovitsch and organist Peter Van de Velde play baroque music by Willem de Fesch and Georg Friedrich Handel, among others, in the Cathedral's high choir.
Sunday, 28 April 2024, 10 am: Eucharist with choir
The Eucharist will be celebrated by the choir of the Cathedral Basilica Sint Bavo in Haarlem led by conductor Laine Tabore. Organist is Ton van Eck, titular organist of the Cathedral Basilica Sint Bavo. The choir will perform a mass by Johann Georg Albrechtsberger.
Sunday, 5 May 2024, 4 pm: Sunday music
With Anastasiia Staroselska - mezzo-soprano and Peter Van de Velde - organ. Concert on the theme of 'peace'.
(Cathedral organ on Sunday cancelled)
Sunday, 2 June 2024, 11.45 am: Cathedral Organ on Sunday
Peter Van de Velde plays works around the feast of Corpus Christi by Ch. Tournemire and others on the Schyven organ
Sunday, 2 June 2024, 4 pm: Sunday music
With the collaboration of the choir of the Antwerp Conservatory of Music conducted by Arturo Moscoso. Music by Morales, Bach and Purcell.
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The Cathedral organs are also active during the larger, religious celebrations. On all Sundays, organist Peter Van de Velde accompanies the High Mass at 10 am and the Vespers service at 5 pm, as well as on Saturdays at the evening Masses at 4 pm in Dutch and in English at 5.30 pm
On Holy Days, special concerts can be heard in the Cathedral too. During Holy Week, a Passion concert (chamber music) sounds on Wednesday at 8 pm and an organ concert on the Metzler organ with works by Johann Sebastian Bach on Easter Monday at 5 pm. On Good Friday, a special tradition has developed over the past years with a performance of St John's Passion in liturgical context at 8 pm. Religious music as it is meant to be. During the Advent and Christmas seasons too, things are anything but quiet at the Cathedral. On Boxing Day (December 26) there is a Christmas Benefit concert on the Schyven organ. A Christmas concert with the Cathedral choirs will be coming in the future.
