forgotten gems
Klarafestival 2021 brings seldom-performed works back to life. Our partners in crime? Specialist ensembles like B’Rock, Collegium Vocale Gent and Ictus.
Furthermore, the voice plays an important part in all of the works we present. With top soloists like Ilse Eerens and Lore Binon, these are guaranteed to be memorable performances!
songs of nature
Heroic Baroque operas, bombastic music for special occasions and large-scale oratorios: this is the music that made George Frideric Handel famous in London. In 1727, however, Handel returned briefly to his native Germany to say goodbye to his sick mother. During this period, he composed an intimate song cycle. Rather than Italian or English, he used German lyrics by the early romantic nature poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes.
In this performance, Songs of Nature (in partnership with BOZAR), the instrumentalists of B’Rock and internationally celebrated Belgian soprano Ilse Eerens rediscover Handel’s Neun deutsche Arien. Brockes’ lyrics, inspired by Chinese nature poetry, tell us a great deal about how people saw nature in the eighteenth century. Muziektheater Transparant and Chinese director Shuang Zou provide the theatrical backdrop to this production. Streamed from Kaaitheater.
dolcissima mia vita
Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo captures the imagination. At the age of 24, he caught his wife in the act of adultery with her aristocratic lover. It’s never been fully established whether he himself wielded the dagger that brought the lives of his wife and her beau to such a bloody end.
What is beyond doubt is that the music that Gesualdo would write over the ensuing years is exceptionally tormented. Vocalists from the Collegium Vocale Gent, in residence at Flagey, perform Gesualdo’s Fifth Book of Madrigals under the guidance of Philippe Herreweghe. Sample the bittersweet joy of these polyphonic gems!
The unaswered question
Musicians from Ictus join forces with the Brussels Philharmonic string section to perform four minimalist masterpieces by Steve Reich, Charles Ives and Gavin Bryars in Flagey. The Sinking of the Titanic by the latter composer is an ode to the musicians aboard the RMS Titanic who kept playing as the ship sank, until the waves engulfed them.
Other masterpieces in this concert include Proverb and Tehillim: two seldom-performed works by the American composer Steve Reich. The vocal parts in these compositions are performed by soloists Lore Binon, Kaoli Isshiki, Morgane Heyse, Els Mondelaers, Kevin Skelton en Hitoshi Tamada.
register now
From March 13 until 22, we will present forgotten gems, great Romantic classics, plenty of new creations and also new, young talent. You’re welcome on our website to explore this digital experience. If you want to enjoy the free digital concerts, please don't forget to register in advance. Register via www.Klarafestival.be/live and watch the entire festival in optimal audio and video quality for free.
Images
© Christophe Urbain
© Dan Potra
© Foppe Schut
