Brecht Valckenaers, Jan Michiels

Last year, our Festival artist in residence Brecht Valckenaers pulled out all the stops with a brilliant piano recital, centred around Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata. His stunning performance prompted Festival 20·21 to create a four-year Ligeti cycle. 

This year’s point of departure is Ligeti’s works for two pianos. Brecht chose as his companion pianist Jan Michiels, who has loved and performed Ligeti’s music for over thirty years now. 

In this new programme, the two will alternate pieces by Ligeti with compositions by Conlon Nancarrow, one of the 20th century’s greatest adventurers in rhythm. Besides seeking out the boundaries of playability, Nancarrow catapults the listener into an unlikely new musical universe. 

Valckenaers will again enrich the debate by intervening between these two masters as a composer, thereby taking his modest but distinctive place in this ‘self-portrait with Ligeti and Nancarrow.’

Co-production LUCA School of Arts Campus Lemmens