Festival 20·21
Festival 20·21 is Leuven’s yearly hotspot for classical music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Here, open ears may enjoy repertoire to be (re)discovered and musical insider tips, or, during the three days of Transit, may embrace the many surprises of exhilarating contemporary premieres.
Festival artist-in-residence
Last year Brecht Valckenaers made his debut with a fascinating recital around Ligeti's youth work Musica Ricercata. That made such an impression that we invited Brecht to be our Festival artist-in-residence.
On the one hand, he continued the exploration of Ligeti's piano music, this time with his work for two pianos, together with Jan Michiels.
On the other hand, he was given carte blanche for a brand new program, in which he opts for an exciting confrontation between Shostakovich and Ustvolskaya.
Brecht looks forward to sharing all this with an audience so close to his heart.
Ontdek de twee concerten met Brecht Valckenaers
Programme
Pieter Bergé
SPECTRA, Filip Rathé, Julien Libeer
New European Ensemble, Christianne Stotijn, Tijl Faveyts
Brussels Philharmonic, Kazushi Ono, Lukáš Vondráček, Andrei Kavalinski
Trio Accanto
String orchestra SAMWD Zottegem o.l.v. Andy Dhondt, Nadar Summer Academy
Brecht Valckenaers, Jan Michiels
Vlaams Radiokoor,James MacMillan, Lore Binon sopraan, Adriaan De Koster, Michiel Haspeslagh, Bernard Foccroulle
Vlaams Radiokoor,James MacMillan, Lore Binon sopraan, Adriaan De Koster, Michiel Haspeslagh, Bernard Foccroulle
Open your ears, open your mind
Dmitri Shostakovich, one of the central composers in this year’s festival, was given a sharp reprimand by the Soviet authorities in 1948. He and other ‘modernists’ were accused of writing music that insufficiently expressed Russia’s greatness. For the political elite music had to be cheerful or not exist at all. It could not be played or heard unless it sang the praises of the unconditionally blissful Russian people, preferably with the composer adding a dash of bombast and nationalistic bluster, in a spirit of ‘Make Russia Great Again’.
Ecological imagination
Artists (much like scientists, by the way) find themselves often represented in the popular imagination as a bit unworldly. The composer in the attic, locked in extreme artistic concentration and thus leaving behind all awareness of the outside world is a cliché that seems hard to get rid of.
Het festival veranderde opnieuw van naam (Festival 20·21) en het profiel werd verder aangescherpt. Programma’s werden (en worden) vrijwel altijd speciaal voor het festival geconcipieerd en vertrekken van een specifiek dramaturgisch concept dat de gespeelde werken inhoudelijk en/of muzikaal met elkaar verbindt.
