My music recommendations for October 2024

Joshua Brown, violin
Sat 05/10/2024 - 20:00 - Villa Empain (Brussels)
Violinist Joshua Brown, this year's 24-year old winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, is giving a recital at the Villa Empain, an Art Deco villa in Brussels. The programme is a little unclear (the website only states J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, L. Janacek and J. Brahms) and I have no idea if the acoustics are good, but it's an excellent opportunity to listen to the American violonist in Belgium in an iconic house. The concert is sold out, but showing up on October 5 at 8pm might do the trick.

Beatrice Rana, piano
Tue 08/10/2024 - 20:00 - Bozar (Brussels)
Italian Pianist Beatrice Rana is coming to Bozar with an excellent programme including Lieder ohne Worte by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Piano Sonata 2 by Johannes Brahms. The evening ends with Maurice Ravel. Rana (31) is one of the most sought-after pianists of her generation, earning praise for her “underlying calm command” (The New York Times) and refined, unpretentious pianistic approach. She performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw and with the New York Philharmonic. Highly recommended. Tip: while at Bozar, do try to visit the excellent Hans Arp/Sophie Taeuber exhibition, the 20th century “abstract art couple”.

Aimez-vous Schönberg, festival
Thu 10 until Sat 12 October - Flagey (Brussels)
Composer Arnold Schönberg died 150 years ago. A good opportunity for a (mini) festival at Flagey in Brussels. Schönberg, figure of late romanticism and (later) atonality, was also connected to the Second Viennese School and was close to the artist group Der Blaue Reiter (Kandinsky and Franz Marc). His early music, such as string sextet Verklärte Nacht (1899), which I recently saw elsewhere, is romantic, fragile and very beautiful, based on a poem about a couple walking a dark forest at night. The woman tells her lover she’s carrying a child from another man… It will also be performed at Flagey on Thursday evening by the Brussels Philharmonic. Another highlight is Phantasie on Friday afternoon, by Sylvia Huang (violonist and finalist of the Queen Elisabeth Competition) and Boris Kusnezow (piano), with a programme of not only Schönberg, but also a ’Fantasie’ by Schumann and a beautiful sonata of Belgian composer César Franck. The festival has seven other events, including interesting talks and an exhibition about Schönberg.

Peter Grimes (opera)
From 6 to 22 October - Nationale Opera & Ballet (Amsterdam)
Peter Grimes is a “thriller” of an opera by Benjamin Britten, created in 1945. The fisherman Peter Grimes is an outsider who becomes the target of accusations and is eventually driven to a tragic end. The piece explores the human struggle with the elements, with ourselves and with our fellow human beings. Composer Benjamin Britten draws links between human fate, the eternal force of the sea and the destructive power of false morality and intolerance. I’m particularly looking forward to “hot” conductor Lorenzo Viotti and the stage design by Barbora Horáková, who previously produced for the Wiener Staatsoper and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. Soprano Johanni van Oostrum plays the role of Ellen Orford and the fisherman will be interpreted by Leigh Melrose.

Olivia Laing (talk)
Mon 21/10/2024 - 20:00 - Bozar (Brussels)
British writer Olivia Laing, art critic for The Guardian and The New York Times, is coming to Bozar for an hour’s long talk about her new book The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise. I know her mainly from her articles about art, so I’m eager to discover her books. Her best-selling book The Lonely City is a blend of personal memoir with social and cultural commentary. According to the Bozar website, she “employs lyrical language to explore the themes of connection, belonging, identity and loneliness”. Annelies Beck, an excellent Belgian journalist, will moderate the talk.

William Forsythe and Johan Inger (dance/ballet)
From 4 October until 3 November - Palais Garnier (Paris)
Well-known choreographer William Forsythe, active for over 50 years, brings Rearray (2011, Sadler’s Wells) and Blake Works I (2016, Paris Opera Ballet), which in itself is a feast. Add to this IMPASSE, the Paris debut of Swedish choreographer Johan Inger, which “questions the relationship between the group and the individual, seemingly suggesting that we are never as strong as when we are together.” This piece at the emblematic Palais Garnier might be a good addition to your Art Basel Paris trip in October!

Looking forward to November
I generally don’t book far in advance, but mark Tuesday 5 November in your diaries for Cecilia Bartoli at Bozar for Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph Willibald Gluck, with the Musiciens du Louvre and Melissa Petit as Euridice and Amore. Bartoli herself will be Orfeo. It is a masterpiece of baroque and one of the first operas ever written (Monteverdi also wrote one). I’ll write about it soon in this blog.