Zelenka - Missa Paschalis - Antwerp - Vox Luminis

24 October 2025, 19:30

It was a pleasure to perform with Vox Luminis at DeSingel in Antwerp on Friday 24 October 2025, in a programme featuring Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Missa Paschalis (ZWV 7). The concert also featured Georg Frideric Handel’s Dixit Dominus (HWV 232). The programme reprised the Missa Paschalis by Zelenka that Vox Luminis had included (paired with Bach’s Easter Oratorio) in their 20th anniversary concert, which took place on Easter Sunday this year.

On this occasion, Lionel Meunier directed from the choir and the orchestra was led by Hannah Visser (violin); I played first trumpet, with Sam Kinrade on second trumpet, Krešimir Fabijanić on third trumpet, Gareth Hoddinott on fourth trumpet, and Koen Plaetinck on timpani. Zelenka’s writing for trumpets and timpani is jubilant and full of Easter triumph.

It was great to explore Antwerp again, having only had fairly limited time on past trips. I have had the good fortune to perform Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo here with I Fagiolini in 2018, Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique with the Aurora Orchestra in 2022, and I have also appeared here twice with Vox Luminis: the first time was for a recording of Purcell’s King Arthur in 2018, and I returned more recently to perform Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in December 2023.

Russell Gilmour

writing on music, photography, engraving, travel and life as a freelance professional musician.

Russell Gilmour's innovative new book, 'Just' Natural Trumpet, is now available: please click here for more information.