Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was a great Hungarian composer and celebrated piano virtuoso. The KlaraFestival programme for 2011 shows that in addition to composing pieces for his favourite instrument he wrote fantastic music for orchestra.

French orchestra, Les Siècles, led by musical director François-Xavier Roth, gets the KlaraFestival off and running. On First Night they perform Liszt’s monumental Eine Symphonie zu Dantes Divina Commedia, written in 1855. This symphony traces an evolution from the horrors of hell in part one (Inferno) to a voyage through purgatory towards paradise in part two (Purgatorio). The composer dedicated this magnificent work to his best friend Richard Wagner. Liszt originally wanted to put the joys of heaven to music in the finale, but Wagner advised him against it because he thought it overly ambitious.

Also on the programme we have Antonín Dvoràk’s Ninth symphony. The composer wrote From the new World (1892) during his three-year stay in America. Although Dvoràk had accepted the job of musical director and teacher to a new generation of musicians who would go on to develop the national American musical style, his ninth symphony can hardly be described as typically American.
-- In search for heaven is a coproduction of Festival van Vlaanderen Brussel and Bozar Music. Thursday 1 september at 20h – Centre for Fine Arts

Five years after his moving direction of Dido & Aeneas, Jan Decorte is at the KlaraFestival once again.  This time he takes the stage himself as bridge builder between Greek tragedy poet Aischylos and celebrated composer Franz Liszt. Accompanying the pianist Claire Chevallier, who plays piano pieces by Liszt, Jan Decorte runs through an inverted but hopeful road from death to birth: from dark to light, as in his treatment of the Oresteia. The selection of pieces from Liszt’s immense oeuvre for piano says a lot: not the overwhelming virtuoso Liszt, but the hushed poet who in many ways pointed the way to the future.
-- Liszt/o death is a coproduction of Festival van Vlaanderen Brussel and Flagey commissioned by KlaraFestival in a copresentation with AMUZ Antwerpen. Friday 9 september at 20h - Flagey

Does the ancient way of the cross still offer hope? This question underpins an exceptional project commissioned by the KlaraFestival. Via dolorosa is a staged liturgy for the concert hall based on the Via Crucis, the visionary way of the cross music written by Franz Lizst in the last years of his life. This piece is far removed from the traditional, romantic music of the church and is performed here by twelve singers from Compagnie Bischoff, and pianist Ronald Brautigam, who will play a historical grand piano. The fourteen stations of the cross are visually reinforced with the help of photos by Belgian Magnum Photographer Carl De Keyzer. Polish composer Kasia Glowicka wrote a contemporary epilogue to the text of Michelangelo's striking quatrain La notte.
-- Via Dolorosa is a coproduction of Flanders Festival Brussels and Flagey on behalf of the KlaraFestival and is presented jointly by AMUZ Antwerpen and Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht. Saturday 3 September at 8 pm - Flagey

This year, the KlaraFestival will again present 10 afternoon concerts in the Fiocco hall and the Foyer of De Munt. Big names make a conscious choice for this more intimate concert hall, and this is why the €10 tickets are selling like hot cakes, just like last year. 

Franz Liszt’s piano music is combined by two first-rate pianists with contemporary pieces composed specially for the project MusMA: Music Masters on Air. Spurred on by the Flanders Festival Brussels, 10 European festivals and 10 radio stations including Klara took the initiative of setting up MusMa: the opportunity to take the creations of young composers and artists to millions of radio listeners and festivalgoers all over Europe. 

In Markus Groh the KlaraFestival has already found the ideal interpreter of Liszt’s impressions. In the wake of the scandalous affair with Marie d'Agoult, Franz Liszt went on a pilgrimage, far from the raging Paris. The concept of the pilgrim, en route to a ‘holy’ destination but actually in search of himself clearly appealed to Liszt’s sensitive nature. It’s no wonder that, under the name of Années de pèlerinage – derived from Goethe – he dedicated three suites to what could be called a musical pilgrimage. In the scope of MusMA, the pianist will perform the Belgian premiere of Music for Piano by the Turkish composer Fazli Orhun Orhon.

Brand new Doctor of Arts, Jan Michiels, takes giant strides through the literature of the piano. From Bach’s Kunst der Fuge he performs the incomplete contrapunctus; he plays various works by Liszt on an 1860 Bechstein including several compositions written together with Wagner. Jan Michiels then plays Petit csárdás obstiné and Barcarola by Holliger on a Steinway. Especially for MusMA, the Italian composer Andrea Padova wrote Waterscape in Motion.
-- The Afternoon Concerts are a coproduction of Flanders Festival Brussels and De Munt. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 September at 12.30 pm – De Munt (Great Foyer), De Munt (Fiocco hall).