‘Brussels Philharmonic’

Stephane Denève and his Brussels Philharmonic kick off the evening with a fiery contemporary composition by Guillaume Connesson (b. 1970). This French composer paints a portrait of Beethoven’s stormy inner nature in his Flammenschrift. The two next pieces, Bacchus et Ariane by Albert Roussel (1869-1937) Maurice Ravel’s (1875-1937) La Valse are perhaps less turbulent but just as intense. Heartrending compositions are always in good hands with Nikolaj Znaider, a laureate of the 1997 Queen Elisabeth Competition. Chronicle Live had the following to say about his interpretation of Max Bruch’s (1838-1920) Violin Concerto No. 1: “Playing with the fire, spirit and tenderness the work demands, he was reminiscent of the great violinists of Jewish heritage such as Fritz Kreisler and Itzhak Perlman. Znaider even plays a violin formerly used by Kreisler!”