Amie d’AMUZ Claire Chevallier is in great demand all over Europe as a pianist for solo recitals, chamber music concerts and performances with orchestra. This versatile artist combines the creativity of a thoroughbred musician, the dedication of a born stayer and the charm of a real Française when speaking about her artistic track record as a pianist, as a collector of historical keyboards and as a teacher. Specialized in historically informed performance ranging from the classical period to the French 20th century, Chevallier has frequently borne the palm, both for her concerts and for her outstanding recordings. In the frame of Slow Lisztening Claire Chevallier guides some talented young musicians through Franz Liszt’s oeuvre for keyboard, evidently on a period grand piano. The public is welcome to attend this masterclass for free.

Professor
Claire Chevallier

During the weekend Slow Lisztening you will be able to discover works by the Hungarian composer that, unfairly, are only seldom to be heard on the concert stage, such as An den Wassern zu Babylon. This psalm setting for the unusual cast of solo voice, women’s choir, violin, harp and harmonium occupies a unique place in Franz Liszt’s oeuvre. In this work he manages to find a perfect balance between religious depth and theatrical effectiveness. Generally speaking Liszt’s repertoire for women’s choir deserves more consideration anyway. Up the alley of AMUZ, which especially for this occasion brings together two splendid vocal ensembles: the angelic voices of Psallentes♀ and the choir Concinite, which will surely enthrall you in this romantic repertoire.

Performers
NN, mezzo soprano | NN, violin | NN, harp | Joris Verdin, harmonium & artistic direction | Hendrik Vanden Abeele & Ludo Claessen, artistic direction

When actor and dramaturge Jan Decorte rewrites classics, he always manages to penetrate into the core of great masterpieces by virtue of his own idiom, which is concurrently charming in a childlike way and unsettling in its brutality. In 2003 he wrote O Death, a powerful emulation of Ayschylus’ Oresteia. The story is reduced to its essence and is interrupted at six points by a poem about death. These poems, ranging the whole gamut from a devastating yearning for death to a rejection of death and an embrace of life, are confronted with Franz Liszt’s music. The selection played by Claire Chevallier on her Erard from 1876 reveals Liszt’s fascination for death, both in his youth and later in life. The focus is not on the glamorously brilliant composer, but on the poet who has quieted down and points the way to the future in many respects. As the final event of a weekend Slow Lisztening this promises to become a splendid confrontation of music and word.

Performers
Claire Chevallier, piano | Jan Decorte, speech | Sigrid Vinks, speech

Programme
Franz Liszt: Funérailles, Andante lagrimoso, Méphisto Waltz, 3 Liebesträume, Wiegenlied, Legende Saint François d’Assise – La prédication aux oiseaux, Legende Saint François de Paule – Marchant sur les flots

Children are born composers! Perhaps the best example of all times was little Wolf Mozart. Yet the school kids who go through the experience of a project week at AMUZ don’t need to be prodigies themselves to create music in their own right. Point of departure during this week is the figure of Mozart. We cast a glance on the women who played a role in his life (his mother, his sister, his first love, his wife, his favourite female singers …) and the music he wrote (for them). The children investigate Mozart’s compositions and subsequently get to work with music themselves. During this presentation moment you will see and hear the result of their intense project week.

Hans Abrahamsen (°1952) is one of the most exciting Scandinavian composers today, providing a wilful reply to the music of his teachers Per Nørgård and György Ligeti. Abrahamsen is famously known for his radically objective and transparent music, based on simple structures. During the early 1990s Abrahamsen arranged a few canons by Johann Sebastian Bach. He re-interpreted them in such a way that they can be repeated endlessly. In doing so, he opens a new musical dimension in which a circular experience of time is central. In the work Schnee two of those canons are the keystone of a number of movements for diverse combinations of instruments. The canons resemble each other, but are differentiated by their tone colour. This duality is also reflected by the cast and their distribution on stage. The HERMESensemble is split into two groups, percussion holding centre stage. And then Abrahamsen’s epic music unfolds, gradually revealing the extensive conceptual world hiding behind an apparent scarcity of sound
 
Performers
Koen Kessels, artistic direction

Programme
Hans Abrahamsen: Schnee