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La Petite Bande (Belgium) (= LPB) was founded in 1972 by Sigiswald Kuijken at the request of the record company Deutsche Harmonia Mundi in order to record Lully's "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme", under the direction of Gustav Leonhardt.
The orchestra takes its name and constitution from Lully's own orchestra at the court of Louis XIV. All its members are internationally renowned specialists in the early music field. Although originally La Petite Bande was not meant to become a permanent orchestra, the success of the recordings was such that they began to give concerts regularly. Having initially concentrated mainly on French music, the orchestra's repertoire has expanded over the years to include music by the Italian masters and that of J.S. Bach, George Frideric Handel, Gluck, Haydn and Mozart. Almost all the productions have been recorded for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Denon and Accent).
La Petite Bande has performed in a multitude of international festivals and concert series (Europe, Japan, Australia, South-America)...
The 2001-2002 season will get an early start this coming summer with a concert programme around Antonio Vivaldi and Leonardo Leo, along with a concert version of La Serva Padrona by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. The season will continue in the autumn with Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (concert version), with among others Isolde Siebert, Cyndia Sieden, Christoph Genz, Knut Schoch, Stephan Schreckenberger and Cornelius Hauptmann. In December the orchestra is once again headed for Japan, this time with a varied Mozart programme. Elements from this programme will be complemented by Haydn for the Folles Journées in Nantes (January 2002) and its sister festivals in Bilbao (March 2002) and Lisbon (May 2002). The Easter season will be marked with Heinrich Schütz’s Johannespassion and Die Sieben Letzte Worte. The season will conclude in May with a performance of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s oratorio, Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Christi, featuring Christoph Genz and Stephan Genz, and the choir Ex Tempore.
La Petite Bande is structurally endowed by the Ministry of the Flemish Community of Belgium and by the Province of Vlaams-Brabant. Since 1997, La Petite Bande has been orchestra-in-residence in
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