Kopatchinskaja plays Stravinsky

Ready for a musical journey back in time? For one night, festival artist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Brussels Philharmonic will transport us to a remarkable era in music history: the 1930s. In this turbulent period, artistic achievements were truly dizzying. This captivating triptych of concerts highlights some of the milestones of that era. The setting: the striking Flagey building, itself designed and inaugurated in the 1930s as one of Europe’s first broadcast centres.

The evening’s main event is a concert in Studio 4, by Brussels Philharmonic, conducted by Patrick Hahn. Patricia Kopatchinskaja pairs Stravinsky’s neoclassical Violin Concerto with her own brand-new double concerto, A Play, for violin, cello, and orchestra, with Anastasia Kobekina on cello. Olivier Messiaen’s symphonic meditation Les Offrandes oubliées will also be featured.

But the excitement begins long before the concert. Students from Brussels’ two conservatories take on Edgard Varèse’s Ionisation, a pinnacle of percussion repertoire, as a prelude in Studio 1. Rounding off the evening, a screening of the film Ursonate will show Patricia Kopatchinskaja and colleagues interpreting Kurt Schwitters’ brilliantly Dadaist sound poem. Between segments, ‘PatKop’ and pianist Anthony Romaniuk will perform brief works in the same spirit.

Flagey, Brussels Philharmonic, Klarafestival