For the third edition of her successful Big Little Music chamber music festival, curator Anneleen Lenaerts will introduce you to the breathtaking beauty and brooding genius of Viennese fin de siècle. This time she zooms in on the little Vienna of the early 1900s, where the twentieth century’s big world was holding its dress rehearsal.
Due to COVID restrictions, all concerts will be offered als live streams only. The streams are accessible trough the www.soundofghent.be platform.
29.01.2021 - Christianne Stotijn, Mati Turi & Oxalys
DAS LIED VON DER ERDE
While leafing through his newly composed song symphony Das Lied von der Erde (“The Song of the Earth”), a song of praise to the twilight zone between life and death, Gustav Mahler put his finger on a few bars from the eerily beautiful closing movement. “What do you think?”, he asked a friend. “Can you endure it? After hearing this, won’t people spontaneously kill themselves?” Ensemble Oxalys performs Mahler’s musical testament in a lavish chamber music version, with the beautiful voices of mezzo Christianne Stotijn and tenor Mati Turi.
30.01.2021 - Dudok Quartet Amsterdam
BRAHMS THE PROGRESSIVE
Is it right to view Johannes Brahms as an elderly bearded man from the nineteenth century? Not so, especially when you consider that the composer witnessed the rise of the Viennese avant-garde, wandered through the same streets as Sigmund Freud, Stefan Zweig and Arnold Schönberg and felt the weight of the twentieth century bearing upon him. The young, incredibly versatile Dudok Quartet shows that the flawless music of the late Brahms is only a step away from the gorgeous quartet music of Anton Webern influenced by Art Nouveau.
31.01.2021 - Sarah Wegener & Götz Payer
HAPPINESS IS A SONG
A recital where every song tastes like the sweet currants in an apple strudel? This is only possible on a Sunday morning. At the invitation of Anneleen Lenaerts, her good friend Sarah Wegener put together a delightful anthology brimming with miniatures and gems from the 1900s Viennese song repertoire. With her amazing charisma, rich vocal colours and expressive timbre, she effortlessly navigates between mischievous operetta and pure liedkunst.
31.01.2021 - Anneleen Lenaerts & Erwin Mortier
VERKLÄRTE NACHT
One night, consumed by a dark secret. One night, radiant with happiness. In his poem Verklärte Nacht, Richard Dehmel describes a couple walking through a dark forest gradually taking control of their future. The young Arnold Schönberg later composed enchantingly beautiful, late Romantic music for the piece. This “Transfigured Night” inspired Anneleen Lenaerts to create a unique literary concert about the dual nature of Viennese fin de siècle: radiant and dark at the same time. Lenaert pulls out shimmering romantic melodies from the treasure chest of the Viennese opera, while Erwin Mortier (Marcel, Shutter Speed, While the Gods Were Sleeping) gives voice to the friction hidden under the Viennese patina.