Festival Musiq'3: the Danube experience

Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Liszt, and, not so long ago, Schoenberg, Bartók, Enescu, Kodály, and Ligeti: the list of leading composers who worked along the Danube at one time or another is dazzling. And that’s without even mentioning Gypsy and Balkan music. Over just four days, spread over 35 concerts, Musiq’3 will immerse us in one of the richest musical cultures of all times.

Vox Luminis
Johann Joseph Fux outlived no fewer than three emperors as a composer at the Habsburg court orchestra. His Requiem was composed for the widow of Emperor Leopold I; but as it was also performed at the funeral of, among others, Charles VI, it became known as the Kaiserrequiem. For this poignant, monumental Mass, the splendid vocal ensemble Vox Luminis is joined by the musicians of the Scorpio Collectief.
28/6, 19.00, €5 > 12, Studio 4

Pascal Sigrist
The pianist Pascal Sigrist has selected his favourite works from the vast piano repertoire written by Danube composers. He starts off with the Classical composers Haydn and Mozart, to whom he adds a substantial serving of Romantic music by Beethoven, Schubert, and Liszt, before closing with Alban Berg’s thrilling and emotionally profound piano sonata. There will be a free breakfast for early birds!
28 & 29/6, 10.00, €5 >12, Studio 1

Opera For Kids: Brundibár
The audience for Brundibár, an opera for and performed by children, written by the Czech composer Hans Krása, are sure to find themselves swept off their feet by its irresistible joie de vivre. You would never suspect that the work had been premiered in 1943 by children in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The opera is an ode to friendship between peoples. Musiq’3 is putting in a big effort to make this concert accessible to people with disabilities, including those with sight or hearing problems.
29/6, 11.00, €5 >12, Studio 4

Brussels Philharmonic
The Brussels Philharmonic brings the festival to a close with a thoroughly Danubian programme. “Not, sadly, by Johannes Brahms,” were the words of high praise spoken by Brahms of the music of Johann Strauss, whose sophisticated Frühlingsstimmen waltzes are complemented by equally festive and light-hearted music by Franz von Suppé, Liszt, and Brahms. In addition, the soprano Jodie Devos, who recently finished a close second in the Queen Elisabeth Competition, will sing a number of Mozart arias.
29/6, 19.00, €5 >12, Studio 4

Festival Musiq’3 • 26 > 29/6, FLAGEY, Heilig Kruisplein/place Sainte-Croix, Elsene/Ixelles, 02-641.10.20, www.flagey.be