Brussels Philharmonic closes the Festival Musiq3 with a swinging programme led by young conductor Pieter Jelle de Boer.

"Quick and pulsating, representing the young enthusiastic spirit of American life" - that, in a nutshell, is what icons Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin knew how to capture with their music like no other.

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Gerswhin accepted the offer to compose a piano concerto to prove that his Rhapsody in Blue was no fluke: "The Rhapsody, as the title suggests, is a blues impression. The piano concerto is an independent piece of music that fits into any programme." The promising Su Yeon Kim takes on the particularly expressive piano part.


The successful Bernstein-Broadway combo started in 1944 with On the Town: this romantic comedy about three sailors on 24-hour leave in wartime New York City was Bernstein's first composition for Broadway. He turned it into a concert suite himself, opting for three dance sequences - giving the short suite particular momentum.