Calendar

Fri 29.09.23 20:00

Mahler 1 & Bezuidenhout plays Mozart

MAHLER’S FIRST SYMPHONY Mozart’s Don Giovanni has an almost mythical status. The scene in which the libertine main character is dragged into hell by “Il Commendatore” particularly captures the imagination. The dark music Mozart wrote for this scene is already announced in the dramatic overture

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Sat 30.09.23 20:00

Mahler 1 & Bezuidenhout plays Mozart

MAHLER’S FIRST SYMPHONY Mozart’s Don Giovanni has an almost mythical status. The scene in which the libertine main character is dragged into hell by “Il Commendatore” particularly captures the imagination. The dark music Mozart wrote for this scene is already announced in the dramatic overture

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Fri 06.10.23 20:00

Symphonic Hour - Shostakovich 8

A DEFEATED SURVIVAL Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony is the second of three wartime symphonies the Soviet composer wrote between 1941 and 1945. This colossal work, which stemmed from the darkest days of the war with Nazi Germany with the infamous Battle of Stalingrad, is perhaps Shostakovich’s most

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Sun 08.10.23 15:00

Shostakovich 8 & Lorenzo Gatto plays Saint-Saëns

A DEFEATED SURVIVAL After the Franco-German war in 1871, Camille Saint-Saëns was more motivated than ever to make French symphonic music (which had hardly existed since Berlioz) compete with German symphonic music. For too long, France had focused on opera and ballet. Saint-Saëns’ Third Violin

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Mon 16.10.23 20:15

Gala Olivia Fund

The trustees of the Olivia Fund cordially invite you to attend their annual Gala Concert to benefit innovative cancer research for children. Soprano Julia Muzychenko, third prizewinner in the 2023 Queen Elisabeth Singing Competition, and pianist Julien Libeer will perform a Franco-Italian programme

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Sat 21.10.23 20:00

Beethoven 3 & Yibai Chen plays Shostakovich

MEMORY OF A GREAT MAN Chinese cellist Yibai Chen (Seconde Prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2022) performs Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto, one of the most difficult pieces of the cello repertoire. Shostakovich composed this work in 1959, stimulated by Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante

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Sun 22.10.23 20:00

Beethoven 3 & Yibai Chen plays Shostakovich

MEMORY OF A GREAT MAN Chinese cellist Yibai Chen (Seconde Prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2022) performs Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto, one of the most difficult pieces of the cello repertoire. Shostakovich composed this work in 1959, stimulated by Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante

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Sun 05.11.23 15:00

Orchestrascope by Zonzo Compagnie (Big Bang Festival)

In this family concert (part of the Big Bang Festival), Zonzo Compagnie goes back in time to the beginning of the rich history of cinema. The discovery of the moving image appealed to the imagination and the possibility of special effects gave a boost to creative ideas. However, a challenge still

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Sun 12.11.23 15:00

Handel Messiah - Sandrine Piau & Choeur de Chambre de Namur

TRANSCENDING TUNES When Italian opera went out of fashion in London in the 1730s, Handel switched to composing Englishlanguage oratorios. Handel had already gained some experience in this genre in Rome, where opera was under papal ban. Messiah, written in 1741, is his eighth oratorio and uses texts

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Fri 24.11.23 20:00

Nielsen 3 & Tetzlaff plays Sibelius

BEFORE THE FALL In Nature’s Realm, a concert overture by Antonín Dvořák, sounds like a landscape painting of the peaceful forests surrounding the Czech composer’s home village. The counterpoint at the end of this work is an ode to Johann Sebastian Bach. Things get even more idyllic in Finnish

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Sun 03.12.23 15:00

Antony Hermus conducts Tristan und Isolde

ENDLESS LONGING Few works have influenced music history as profoundly as Wagner’s musical drama Tristan und Isolde. Chief conductor and Wagner specialist Antony Hermus performs a 75-minute orchestral arrangement by Dutch composer Henk de Vlieger. This is extended, especially for this concert, to

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Fri 15.12.23 20:00

Nielsen 4 Maria João Pires plays Beethoven

THE BELGIAN NATIONAL ORCHESTRA INVITES THE ORCHESTRE NATIONAL DE LYON For this exchange concert, the Orchestre National de Lyon comes to Bozar. Led by the Danish-Israeli conductor Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, principal conductor of the Orchestre National de Lyon since the 2020-2021 season, horn player

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Sat 16.12.23 20:00

Beethoven 5 & Gerstein plays Bartók

“THUS FATE KNOCKS AT THE DOOR” First guest conductor Roberto González-Monjas begins this concert with a work by Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi. Ascent - Concerto for Orchestra is a seven-movement composition that gradually rises from an oceanic basin to a beautiful starry sky. Fleeing World War II

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Sun 17.12.23 15:00

Beethoven 5 & Gerstein plays Bartók

“THUS FATE KNOCKS AT THE DOOR” First guest conductor Roberto González-Monjas begins this concert with a work by Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi. Ascent - Concerto for Orchestra is a seven-movement composition that gradually rises from an oceanic basin to a beautiful starry sky. Fleeing World War II

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Fri 22.12.23 18:00

Winter Concert: The Nutcracker

TCHAIKOVSKY ILLUSTRATED AND ANIMATED Every year, Bozar and the Belgian National Orchestra organise a heart-warming family performance just before the Christmas holidays. This year, we will venture into Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet The Nutcracker. The concert is conducted by Ryan McAdams and features

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Sat 23.12.23 18:00

Winter Concert: The Nutcracker

TCHAIKOVSKY ILLUSTRATED AND ANIMATED Every year, Bozar and the Belgian National Orchestra organise a heart-warming family performance just before the Christmas holidays. This year, we will venture into Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet The Nutcracker. The concert is conducted by Ryan McAdams and features

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Wed 27.12.23 15:00

Winter Concert: The Nutcracker

TCHAIKOVSKY ILLUSTRATED AND ANIMATED Every year, Bozar and the Belgian National Orchestra organise a heart-warming family performance just before the Christmas holidays. This year, we will venture into Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet The Nutcracker. The concert is conducted by Ryan McAdams and features

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Fri 29.12.23 20:00

Sylvester Konzert: Dvořák & Beethoven

For a long time, Dvořák did not consider the cello as suitable for a solo role in a concerto: “too nasal in the heights and too mumbling in the depths.” But after attending the premiere of a cello concerto by a fellow composer and cellist in New York, he changed his mind and got down to work. The

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Fri 05.01.24 19:00

New Year’s Concert with Antony Hermus

HAPPY NEW YEAR! The Belgian National Orchestra presents a dazzling New Year’s concert conducted by chief conductor Antony Hermus. He kicks off 2024 with works that festively look ahead to the year to come. In time-honoured fashion, the concert will conclude with Johann Strauss Senior’s famous

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Sat 06.01.24 20:00

New Year’s Concert with Antony Hermus

HAPPY NEW YEAR! The Belgian National Orchestra presents a dazzling New Year’s concert conducted by chief conductor Antony Hermus. He kicks off 2024 with works that festively look ahead to the year to come. In time-honoured fashion, the concert will conclude with Johann Strauss Senior’s famous

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Sun 07.01.24 15:00

New Year’s Concert with Antony Hermus

HAPPY NEW YEAR! The Belgian National Orchestra presents a dazzling New Year’s concert conducted by chief conductor Antony Hermus. He kicks off 2024 with works that festively look ahead to the year to come. In time-honoured fashion, the concert will conclude with Johann Strauss Senior’s famous

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Tue 09.01.24 20:00

New Year’s Concert with Antony Hermus

HAPPY NEW YEAR! The Belgian National Orchestra presents a dazzling New Year’s concert conducted by chief conductor Antony Hermus. He kicks off 2024 with works that festively look ahead to the year to come. In time-honoured fashion, the concert will conclude with Johann Strauss Senior’s famous

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Sun 14.01.24 15:00

New Year’s Concert with Antony Hermus

HAPPY NEW YEAR! The Belgian National Orchestra presents a dazzling New Year’s concert conducted by chief conductor Antony Hermus. He kicks off 2024 with works that festively look ahead to the year to come. In time-honoured fashion, the concert will conclude with Johann Strauss Senior’s famous

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Sun 21.01.24 15:00

Hartmut Haenchen conducts Bruckner 8

THE APOCALYPTIC One of the gems of the early cello repertoire is Joseph Haydn’s Second Cello Concerto. Recent research has revealed that Haydn wrote this very classical composition in 1783 for James Cervetto, the principal cellist of the Italian Opera House in London. His brilliant virtuosity and

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Sat 27.01.24 20:00

Stefaan Degand conducts Brahms 4

LET’S TALK ABOUT CONDUCTING! Already as a little boy, actor Stefaan Degand was waving a baton on the coffee table, with the sound system at maximum volume. Almost all his life, he has dreamed of one day conducting Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, with an 80-strong orchestra, in a sold-out concert hall. That

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Fri 02.02.24 20:00

Prokofiev 2 & Alexander Melnikov

A WORK OF STEEL AND IRON Between 1918 and 1936, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev went into exile and avoided his homeland, the newly-founded Soviet Union. After wandering for several years, mainly in America, he settled in Paris in 1923. There he intensified his contacts with the ballet

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Sun 04.02.24 15:00

Chout & Veronika Eberle plays Prokofiev

FAIRYTALE NAIVITY AND WILD DARING Between 1918 and 1936, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev went into exile and avoided his homeland, the newly-founded Soviet Union. After wandering for several years, mainly in America, he settled in Paris in 1923. There he intensified his contacts with the

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Thu 08.02.24 20:30

Prelude to the Queen Elisabeth Competition

NEXT GENERATION Three residents of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel will be playing with the Belgian National Orchestra for the first time, in preparation for the Queen Elisabeth Competition for violin. The perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the competition and discover

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Fri 23.02.24 20:00

Symphonic Hour - Sibelius 5 & Kobekina plays Elgar

TRUE TO HIMSELF The Cello Concerto in E minor is the last major work by the British composer Edward Elgar. He wrote this four-movement concerto in 1919, just after the First World War. Its elegiac and contemplative mood can be linked to the anxiety, despair and disillusionment of the war years. The

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Thu 07.03.24 20:00

Film Symphonic: The Phantom of the Opera with Frank Strobel

1920S HORROR MOVIE German conductor Frank Strobel is a pioneer of film concerts. In this concert he conducts the score composed by Carl Davis in 1996 to accompany the American silent horror film The Phantom of the Opera. In the early 1920s, New Zealand director Rupert Julian conceived the idea of

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Fri 15.03.24 20:00

Henderickx, Tejas & Stravinsky, Le sacre du printemps

COSMIC RITUAL Tejas (which in Sanskrit means fire, light, vitality, magical power and creative energy) is a seven-part composition for large orchestra by the season composer, Wim Henderickx. Musical influences and instruments from all over the world can be found in this work. A titanic percussion

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Fri 29.03.24 20:00

Khachatryan plays Schumann

VIOLIN CONCERTO AND A LOVE STORY The Tatar-born Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina, now 92, grew up under Stalin, received an encouraging speech from Shostakovich at her composition final exam in Moscow and has been living as a kind of hermit near Hamburg since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The

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Sat 30.03.24 20:00

Khachatryan plays Schumann

VIOLIN CONCERTO AND A LOVE STORY The Tatar-born Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina, now 92, grew up under Stalin, received an encouraging speech from Shostakovich at her composition final exam in Moscow and has been living as a kind of hermit near Hamburg since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The

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Sun 14.04.24 15:00

Mahler 6 & Goerner plays Mozart

THE TRAGIC When a radio interviewer asked the world-renowned Argentine pianist Nelson Goerner what exactly he admired about Mozart’s Twentythird Piano Concerto, he listed the following: “the surprising simplicity, the musical depth and the mysterious contemplation”. By this he was referring

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Fri 19.04.24 20:30

Tchaikovsky 5 & Florian Noack plays Medtner

FATE TRYING TO ESCAPE Coriolanus was a Roman patrician who tried to become consul after several military successes. When this failed, he turned against Rome. He made an alliance with a hostile people and laid siege to his own home town. At the height of the battle, Rome sent a group of women to

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Sat 20.04.24 20:00

Tchaikovsky 5 & Florian Noack plays Medtner

FATE TRYING TO ESCAPE Coriolanus was a Roman patrician who tried to become consul after several military successes. When this failed, he turned against Rome. He made an alliance with a hostile people and laid siege to his own home town. At the height of the battle, Rome sent a group of women to

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Sun 21.04.24 18:00

Tchaikovsky 5 & Florian Noack plays Medtner

FATE TRYING TO ESCAPE Coriolanus was a Roman patrician who tried to become consul after several military successes. When this failed, he turned against Rome. He made an alliance with a hostile people and laid siege to his own home town. At the height of the battle, Rome sent a group of women to

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Thu 25.04.24 20:00

Film Symphonic Joker with Dirk Brossé

OSCAR-WINNING SCORE The psychological thriller Joker was undoubtedly one of the most memorable films of the year 2019. The unique origin story surrounding Arthur Fleck, who eventually becomes the psychopathic supervillain terrorizing Gotham City, could charm friend and foe of the Batman universe

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Fri 03.05.24 20:00

Symphonic Hour - Mussorgsky & González-Monjas plays and conducts Mozart

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION Our first guest conductor Roberto González-Monjas began his career as a violin soloist, concertmaster and chamber musician. Today, in addition to being a conductor, he is still active as a violinist. Sometimes he plays and conducts at the same time, as in his sensational

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