‘La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra’

‘Bartók found a point upon which the heritage of the past and the revolution of the present – in Adorno’s words, restoration and progress – were converging,’ observed the Bartók expert János Kárpáti. Bartók’s music does indeed form a sort of point of convergence for the major trends of the 20th century: classicism and modernism. His Concerto for Orchestra is a good example. This convergence can also be heard in the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu’s short, subdued Requiem for strings and even in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, in which Romanticism already makes itself felt. Isn’t all good music a blend of tradition and progress, playing with the known in order to unlock the unknown? Alain Altinoglu builds bridges between well- and lesser-known works from the repertoire and between tradition and renewal, allowing the La Monnaie orchestra to display all its virtuosity and brilliance.