"Amber Music Box" ensemble with the new program "Echos de Versailles", French baroque music on authentic instruments

Amber Music Box with "Échos de Versailles"

A programme with music by Marin Marais, François Couperin, Jacques-Martin Hotteterre and others is shaped by the sound world of the French court in the early 18th century — where nuance, gesture, and colour carried as much meaning as melody.

In Échos de Versailles, Amber Music Box focuses on chamber repertoire that once resonated in more intimate courtly settings: suites, character pieces, and finely wrought instrumental dialogues. Rather than spectacle, this music draws its strength from detail — articulation, ornament, and the subtle play between voices.

The ensemble performs on period instruments at A = 392 Hz, a pitch closely associated with French practice of the time. This lower tuning lends a distinctive depth and softness to the sound, particularly in the blend of traverso, baroque oboe, viola da gamba, and theorbo.

The programme highlights the expressive range of this instrumentation — from the grain of the oboe and the flexibility of the traverso to the harmonic richness of plucked continuo and the quiet resonance of the viola da gamba.

Performers
Katja Pitelina — traverso
Olga Kuznetcova — baroque oboe
Takeshi Sudo — viola da gamba
Simon Linné — theorbo

Dates & Locations
5.06.2026, 20.00 Haarlem — Lutherse Kerk, Witte Herenstraat 22, Haarlem
6.06.2026, 15.15 Amsterdam — English Reformed Church, Begijnhof 48, Amsterdam
7.06.2026 15.00 The Hague — Waalse Kerk, Noordeinde 25, The Hague