Ten years ago, the idiosyncratic composer Luc Brewaeys died at the age of just 56. Conductor Baldur Brönnimann takes a fresh look at the music that Brewaeys wrote almost twenty-five years ago for the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. The Seventh Symphony will be a special listening experience: the instrument groups are strategically distributed across the room. Brewaeys played with timbre and overtones like no other. He shared his fascination with spectralism, a compositional movement from the 1970s, with the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. Her delicate violin concerto Graal théâtre is performed by Benjamin Beilman, who returns after previous successful collaborations with the orchestra. Where did the spectralists get their inspiration? With Claude Debussy, who made timbre his trademark. The transparency and brilliance of La mer inspired many composers. With Brewaeys’ recomposition of Debussy’s Préludes the circle is complete: he translated the intimate piano works into a rich symphonic sound world that is tailor-made for the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.

This concert is the prelude to the ‘Fasten Seat Belts! Celebrating Luc Brewaeys’. Today the orchestra honors the special collaboration with the composer and shows how Brewaeys’ music continues to inspire, both in Flanders and beyond. You will also learn more about the composer and his works in a mini exhibition beforehand

Program:

Debussy Préludes (recomposition for orchestra by Luc Brewaeys; selection)

Saariaho Graal theatre

Brewaeys Symphony No. 7

Debussy La mer (trois esquisses symphoniques)