A tribute to three “magicians of sound” who, each in their own era, pushed the boundaries of orchestration to create worlds of unparalleled richness, clarity — or mystery.

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The concert opens in the mists of Impressionism with Claude Debussy and his Symphonic Suite from the opera Pelléas et Mélisande. Debussy, the unrivalled master of suggestion, paints a symbolist world where emotions are whispered rather than proclaimed.

Fin de nuit for piano and orchestra (2017) by Philippe Boesmans, a leading figure in Belgian contemporary music, offers a fascinating dialogue between soloist and orchestra. Through complex, vibrant textures evoking the blurred border between dream and early dawn, Boesmans, a true alchemist of the orchestra, unfolds a kaleidoscopic palette of sound.

The evening concludes with a pivotal work by Richard Wagner: the Vorspiel und Liebestod from Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. In 1859, Wagner set off a harmonic revolution, paving the way for the atonality and chromaticism that would shape the century to come. The famous “Tristan chord” weaves unbearable tension — a perpetual musical longing that finds its ecstatic resolution only in Isolde’s Liebestod. A feat of sonic magic that seems to transcend death itself.