Baroque Ensemble & Orchestra Opus X -About

Baroque Ensemble &
Orchestra Opus X

About Opus X Baroque Orchestra

Baroque ensemble and orchestra Opus X was founded in 1995 at the iniative of its current artistic director, violinist Petri Tapio Mattson.

Initially Opus X was formed as a chamber ensemble of 4-6 players, and has especilly focused on string ensemble repertoire. The ensemble has played a wide variety of music, ranging from Italian and German Early Baroque composers to quartets by Haydn and Mozart, giving concerts in all parts of Finland.

Since Spring 1998 Opus X has increasingly performed as an orchestra. The turning point was the ensemble’s début recording, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantatas for bass and orchestra (BWV 56 & 82) with baritone Elja Puukko, which was released in February 1999. The CD in question was the first orchestral recording using so-called period instruments ever produced in Finland, and was received enthusiastically by the Finnish press.

Since then Baroque Orchestra Opus X has performed important large-scale choral works such as J.S.Bach’s St John Passion and Mass in B minor, and G.F.Handel’s Messiah, as well as Bach’s church cantatas and instrumental concertos, on several occasions. For the future, recordings of Bach’s violin concertos and Georg Muffat’s ensemble sonatas (among others) are planned. The first time for a Finnish baroque orchestra to do so, in 2001 Opus X will also appear at an internationally established music event abroad, namely the Schleswig-Holstein Musik-Festival, with two concerts there next August.

Individual members of Opus X have studied early music with leading specialists like Jaap Schröder, Wouter Möller, Lucy van Dael, Marcel Ponseele, and Bob van Asperen, and some have participated in the work of renowned orchestras such as the Orchestra of the 18th Century, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. At home many also perform with chamber and symphony orchestras such as Avanti!, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Helsinki Philharmonic, the orchestra of the Finnish National Opera and Sinfonia Lahti.