It's the moment audience and musicans alike have eagerly awaited: starting in September, Brussels Philharmonic is back live on stage, and the musicians can make music again with and for their audience. The season opens with the month of September full of concerts, as per tradition a wide range of music evergreens, hidden gems and surprising collaborations. All concerts comply with the required guidelines, ensuring a safe environment for both audience and players. The concerts last one hour, do not have a break, and a frequently played twice a night.
“We are particularly proud of this 'new normal' season: we have worked hard to stay in keeping with all aspects of the new reality. The required adjustments and measures have been put in place to guarantee the safety of our musicians, staff and audience. But what the last months have proven most of all, is that experiencing live music is essential - for both musicians and audience. And so now, more than ever it is our mission to keep creating compelling programmes and to create concerts at which emotions, oxygen and being together are of central importance. That is the power of live music, and that is the mission that we are extremely happy to return to after these months of silence." - Gunther Broucke, intendant Brussels Philharmonic.
Together with the Vlaams Radiokoor, Brussels Philharmonic opens the season in Flagey on Saturday 12 September: a symbolic concert, exactly six months to the day after both ensembles played on that same stage in an empty concert hall, on the eve of the lockdown. The Vlaams Radiokoor will provide the first notes, with the moving Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen by Mahler, conducted by their music director Bart Van Reyn. Music director Stéphane Denève takes over the baton for Beethoven's Fifth Symphony - a symphonic blockbuster that belongs to many music lover's bucketlist.
For the traditional film concert, Brussels Philharmonic chose for Chaplin’s The Kid. The film classic will be projected on the big screen in Flagey, with live music (written by Chaplin himself) conducted by Dirk Brossé on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September,
On Friday 25 September, Hervé Niquet conducts a unique performance ofn Haydn’s Die sieben letzten Worte in the Basilica of Koekelberg: an extraordinary setting for this wonderful music, enriched by actor Johan Leysen, who will recite the biblical texts, and scintillating footage by photographer Stef Van Alsenoy.