Klarafestival: love, lust, and music

Love. The theme is a constant in classical music – and in the entire history of Western culture. Over its next three editions, the Klarafestival will thoroughly explore “love” – everything from passion to compassion. So what can you expect? Well, passion expressed in music, desire, the love of God, yearning, and lust. But compassion, too, and Weltschmerz, death, suffering, and chastity. Legendary, doomed lovers will inevitably feature, from Tristan and Iseult to Romeo and Juliet, as will courtly love, as transmitted to us by the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. For sixteen days, the Klarafestival will treat us to 31 concerts – orchestral, recitals, opera (in concert), film, and more – with no fewer than 1,182 musicians, 48 soloists, and twelve eminent conductors, in twelve venues.


LE VIN HERBÉ
Le Vin herbé is a relatively rarely performed opera by the Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890–1974). Composed between 1938 and 1941, its sophistication and expressive sensitivity brought the composer international fame and recognition.

It is based on Joseph Bédier’s 1900 novel Le roman de Tristan et Iseut, which was, of course, inspired by the well-known medieval tale of tragic love. Unlike their counterparts in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Martin’s lovers remain chaste and pure, despite their tempestuous passion. The stripped-down musical language, played by a pocket-sized orchestra, focuses all our attention on the dramatic relationship between the two protagonists. This is a couple that more closely resembles Pelléas and Mélisande than Wagner’s red-hot Tristan and Isolde whose fate culminates in the famous Liebestod.
Rias Kammerchor & De Munt/La Monnaie Chamber Music Ensemble, cond. Hans-Christoph Rademann, 10/3, 20.00, €20/40/60, Flagey


WEST SIDE STORY
Take a story that fires the imagination – Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – and transpose it to the slums of New York, soon after the Second World War.

Add a layer of superbly orchestrated music (with a starring role for percussion) by the composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein, lovesick solos, duets, and choruses and combine all that with visually stunning choreography. Et voilà, you have the recipe for the biggest Broadway hit of all time, with evergreens such as “Maria”, “America”, and “Mambo”. And it wasn’t long before a film version appeared: West Side Story, which came out in 1961, won no fewer than ten Oscars. There will be two screenings of a restored copy, with live orchestral music from the Brussels Philharmonic and the British conductor Wayne Marshall.
Wayne Marshall & Brussels Philharmonic, 9 & 10/3, 20.00, €10/22/32/40, Bozar


YELLOW LOUNGE
Fuse’s fame extends far beyond Brussels. But it’s not exactly the kind of place where you would expect to find classical music. Fair play to the Klarafestival, then, which is prepared to think outside the box and is heading for Fuse with a bunch of soloists (including the violinist Hilary Hahn and the Grammy Award-winning mandolin-player Avi Avital), in the company of the ever-surprising B’Rock (in a pocket version).

And while “thinking outside the box” is easier said than done, the festival has drawn on experience elsewhere: the “Yellow Lounge” has already taken root in Berlin, New York, and Vienna as a highly successful lounge evening that alternates short live sets by classical musicians with interventions by DJs – including household name DJ Lefto – and a VJ.
Hilary Hahn, Piotr Beczala, Avi Avital, B’Rock XS, Cory Smythe, Lefto, & Le Concert Invisible, 19/3, 20.30, SOLD OUT!, Fuse


FUOCO E PASSIONI
In the firmament of baroque music ensembles, Il Giardino Armonico’s star – and that of its charismatic conductor, Giovanni Antonini – burns brightly. They will perform three days in a row (but only one of those in Brussels) with an attractive programme that has a particular focus on Haydn.

If you have had a chance to listen to their recently released CD La passione, which includes the symphony of that name and CW Gluck’s Don Juan Suite, you will know that this should be a mind-blowing concert. The CD has won one award after another. Not surprisingly, in view of the vivacious colours Antonini succeeds in getting out of his ensemble: Haydn suddenly becomes madly exciting, even addictive. As a bonus, you can hear Isabelle Faust (who also has a new CD out, of works by Schumann) as soloist in Mozart’s Second Violin Concerto. Fuoco e passioni? Absolutely!
Giovanni Antonini & Il Giardino Armonico, 19/3, 20.00, €18/40/56/72, Bozar


TURANGALÎLA SYMPHONY
Olivier Messiaen wrote his Turangalîla symphony as the middle section of his “Tristan” trilogy in 1948. So it’s no surprise that love and death are at the heart of this stunning work for piano, ondes martenot (an early predecessor of the synthesiser), and a huge orchestra. Turangalîla is a Sanskrit word that combines terms for “energy” and “love”.

Messiaen originally wrote it as a conventional symphony in four movements. But he soon added six more, with names as exotic as the music itself, such as “Jardin du sommeil d’amour” and the celebrated “Joie du sang des étoiles”. As the material is developed, ideas tumble over each other; the work as a whole administers a veritable electroshock to the audience. The Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra Tokyo from Japan, conducted by Sylvain Cambreling, is joined by the pianist Angela Hewitt.
Sylvain Cambreling & Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, 8/3, 15.00, €10/22/32/40, Bozar


KLARAFESTIVAL • 6 > 21/3, festival pass: €99, verschillende locaties/divers lieux/various locations, 070-21.02.17, www.klarafestival.be