Palace Music: FLORIDANTE & PEETER SARAPUU

Sunday, October 4, 2026 at 6 p.m. Kadriorg Palace / Kadriorg Art Museum

PALACE MUSIC

ENSEMBLE FLORIDANTE

PEETER SARAPUU period bassoons
MADLEEN ALASI baroque violin
VILLU VIHERMÄE viola da gamba
SAALE FISCHER harpsichord

Program: 

Johann Ernest Galliard (1666?- 1747)
Sonata No. 6 for bassoon and basso continuo VI in C major

Larghetto - Alla Breve - Sarbande - Menuet I-II                    

 

Francois Couperin
“Les Baricades Mistérieuses”

 

G. Ph. Telemann
Frankfurt Sonata TWV 41: g1 in g                                   

Adagio - Allegro - Andante - Allegro              

                                                                                                           

Giovanni Frescobaldi
“Canzona settima detta la superba”   

Marin Marais
“Fête Champêtre”                                

 

Jean-Marie Rebel
Sonate premiere Livre II in A

Grave - Gai - Grave - Gracieusment                                                                                                             

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier
Sonata 2a in G                                                                 

Largo - Allemanda.Allegro - Largo - Giga. Staccato

 

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier
Sonata in e op XXXVII/2

Allegro - Adagio - Allegro                                                                                          

Peeter Sarapuu has spent most of his musical career with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, where he has served as principal bassoonist since 2005. He first appeared as a soloist with the orchestra in 1986. Since then, he has performed as a soloist with orchestras in Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Israel, among them in concertos by Vivaldi, C. P. E. Bach, Danzi, Mozart, Weber, Jolivet, Williams, Françaix, Tamberg and Kaumann.

Historical-performance practice also holds an important place in Sarapuu’s work. He has collaborated with numerous orchestras and ensembles, including NYYD Ensemble, YXUS Ensemble, the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble, the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Opus X Ensemble, Corelli Consort, Reval Ensemble, The Theatre of Voices, Kesselberg Ensemble, Melomania, the Jerusalem Chamber Orchestra and the Israel Baroque Orchestra.

Chamber music is another important aspect of his musical activities. As a soloist and chamber musician, Sarapuu has performed at numerous international festivals, including the NYYD Festival, MärzMusik in Berlin, Klangspuren, the Bruges Festival, Europamusicale, the Vienna Haydn Festival, and La Folle Journée in France and Japan. Since 2010, he has been a Walter bassoon artist.

Alongside his performing career, Sarapuu has worked as a teacher for many years. Over more than two decades, he has taught at several music institutions in Finland, Tallinn Music High School and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, as well as giving masterclasses in various locations across Europe. Since May 2016, he has been Professor of Bassoon at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.

Madleen Kristen Alasi (b. 2003) began her musical studies in 2011 at Keila Music School, where she studied violin in Lena Laasi’s class. In parallel with the violin, she studied piano with Eva Teppo for four years. She continued her secondary education in the music class of the Old Town Educational College, where her specialised teacher was Katrin Talmar.

Madleen Kristen has performed successfully at both regional and national competitions. Her achievements include a diploma of recognition at the 2018 National String Competition, laureate status at the 2019 Northwestern Estonia Regional Competition, and a special prize at the 2021 12th Estonian Competition-Festival for Young String Players.

She has also furthered her studies at various masterclasses, including those led by Aet Ratassepp at the International Hiiumaa String Course and by Maano Männi at the Värska String Course. Since 2020, Madleen Kristen has studied classical singing with Tuuri Dede.

During the current academic year, Madleen Kristen continued her classical violin studies under the guidance of Triin Ruubel-Lilleberg at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. For the past year, she has also been actively involved in early music and historical violin performance. Her tutors have included Anthony Marini (USA/Finland), Sanita Zaira (Latvia), Aira Maria Lehtipuu (Finland), and Reinut Tepp.

Madleen Kristen has performed on numerous occasions with leading professionals in the early-music field, including Reinut Tepp and Villu Vihermäe. She has also participated in various Estonian early-music ensembles, including Floridante, the Haapsalu Early Music Festival Orchestra, the Tallinn Baroque Orchestra, and Corelli Consort at the “Estonian Manors 2022” festival.

Floridante began its concert activities in January 2014. Its core members are harpsichordist Saale Fischer and gambist and cellist Villu Vihermäe. The ensemble’s line-up varies according to the repertoire performed, whose stylistic range extends from the Renaissance to contemporary music premieres. Among other projects, Floridante has presented, in collaboration with the National Library of Estonia, the vocal music of Baltic German manor owners who were active in Estonia during the nineteenth century.

Floridante brings together several dozen Estonian musicians with a particular interest in the performance of early music. In addition to its various ensemble formations, the Floridante Baroque Orchestra began its activities in 2020, followed by the first concerts of the vocal ensemble Floridante Consort in 2022. The ensemble regularly features Estonian vocal soloists such as sopranos Maria Valdmaa and Maria Listra, mezzo-sopranos Kadri Tegelmann and Tuuri Dede, baritone Alvar Tiisler and many others, as well as violinists Anthony Marini (United States/Finland), Aira Maria Lehtipuu (Finland), Peter Spissky (Slovakia/Denmark) and Ragnhild Hemsing (Norway).

Floridante has performed in various formations at numerous festivals in Estonia and elsewhere in Europe, and also organises concerts of its own. Since 2015, Floridante has been the resident ensemble and co-organiser of the Haapsalu Early Music Festival. The ensemble’s debut album, Amarilli mia bella, was released in 2019 on the ERP label, and several concerts by Floridante and the Floridante Baroque Orchestra have been recorded by Klassikaraadio. In summer 2026, the Dutch record label Brilliant Classics released Floridante’s second album, featuring an international ensemble of musicians and works by Bach and Handel. The album has received favourable reviews from both BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone.

Floridante is a junior member of Nordic Baroque Scene, a network bringing together leading Nordic ensembles.       

In the “Lossimuusika” (Palace Music) series of Sunday concerts at Kadriorg Palace, the period-instrument ensemble Floridante opens its 2026/2027 season. For more than a decade, Floridante has moved with equal ease between historically informed repertoire, arrangements of folk songs, and premieres of new works on the Estonian classical scene. Esteemed soloist, pedagogue, and ERSO musician Peeter Sarapuu, whose everyday performing life centres on modern instruments, here presents a selection from his collection of historical bass instruments.