Palais des Beaux-Arts, © Photo: Yannick Sas Belgian National Orchestra, Halls & Vlaams Radiokoor
Brussels, Palais des Beaux‐Arts — Henry le Boeuf Hall
About the Event
The “Echoes of Brussels” concert series jumps back and forth along the capital’s timeline, highlighting unforgettable works and personalities.
This concert marks the festive culmination of an intensive Stravinsky weekend. “Chant funèbre,” the composer’s earliest surviving orchestral work, is a restrained homage to his teacher Rimsky‐Korsakov. The music unfolds like a trembling funeral procession: dark in timbre, sparing in gesture, and yet full of emotional intensity. In the “Symphony of Psalms,” which celebrated its world premiere here at the Centre for Fine Arts in 1930, Stravinsky turns to the sacred. No romantic devotion, but a austere, collective expression of faith. Voices and orchestra merge into a mystical presence, marked by repetition, simplicity, and archaic power. For the finale, “Petrushka” bursts onto the stage. What begins as a lively folk festival evolves into a hallucinatory dance of masks, marionettes, and shattered humanity. The rhythm drives the action forward, colors flash, and irony and tragedy intertwine. One last time this weekend, Matthew Halls leads the entire procession, accompanied by the Vlaams Radiokoor. We conclude as Stravinsky intended: sharp, lively, and unmistakably disruptive.
Address
Palais des Beaux‐Arts, Rue Ravenstein 23, Brussels, Belgium — Google Maps
