The theme for the 2011 KlaraFestival is paradise (lost) and aspirations for an ideal world. A theme that is part one of a trilogy. During the next three KlaraFestivals “people” will be central. What makes people what they are? How do they cope with their shortcomings and aspirations? What forces determine their actions? The KlaraFestival will be focusing on the inner man and what unites people within a common humanity.

Since the Biblical fall from grace man has been in search of harmony and perfection, of a better world and good fortune. These aspirations are central to the work of countless philosophers, scientist and artists. Many of their ideas come together in the wonderful ambiguity of the word “utopia”: a “beautiful place” but that is also “nowhere to be found”.
It is not only writers, architects and plastic artists but composers too who, throughout the ages, have turned their attention to the idea of utopia. This year the KlaraFestival moves between hope and the imagination, between utopia and reality, between the beautiful and the horrific.
 

Notions of utopia pervade the optimistic spirit of 18th century music. In this age of enlightenment and belief in the future, the revolutionary ethic of the French Revolution promoted new and higher values: freedom, equality and fraternity. Central guest René Jacobs builds a bridge between the Arcadian fantasies of the lost Garden of Eden in Händel’s famous serenade Aci, Galatea e Polifemo of 1708 and the Masonic symbolism of Haydn’s most successful opera Orlando Paladino of 1782. For Beethoven too the link with the ideals of the revolution was evident; music as resistance to authority, as in his overture to Leonore or the Eroica symphony. The concerts of the much loved London Haydn Quartet reveal another facet of Beethoven’s utopia. In his masterly late string quartets he displays a new musical world order: visionary music that opened the door to Romanticism.

The terror of the restoration and the burgeoning of capitalism quickly followed the utopia of the revolution. ‘Dort, wo du nicht bist, dort ist das Glück,’ we hear in Schubert’s Der Wanderer. Schubert introduces a new generation of romantics in search of a place that is nowhere to be found: an elusive world of dreams. Roger Norrington conducts the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in a performance of Schubert’s Eighth Symphony. A 20th century closing section to this unfinished work can be found in the mysterious and surreal texts of Rimbaud in Britten’s Les Illuminations of 1940, with Ian Bostridge as the ideal interpreter.

Just a few years after Schubert the nomadic piano virtuoso Franz Liszt was welcomed with open arms by the “nouveau riche” of a new Europe. But the heritage of Liszt is not limited to his known virtuosity on the piano. His contact with the utopian social theories of Henri de Saint-Simon and Abbé Félicité de Lamennais in the salons of Paris sharpened Liszt’s thinking on the role of the musician in society. The artist must act as teacher for mankind and help improve the world.

The 20th century was characterised by growing tensions in politics and art. Utopian ideologies culminated in brutal systems of repression. A strong response from art was required; Scriabin, Glazunov and Shostakovich against Lenin and Stalin; Weill and Brecht against the dictatorship of Hitler. All over the world art committed itself to the cause in a reaction to murderous doctrines, examples being Hans Werner Henze’s Orpheus Behind the Wire and Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem . Britten composed this castigating and impressive music in protest at the senselessness of war: a cry for general reconciliation and peace. On 11 September the Brussels Philharmonic – Flemish Radio Orchestra, the Flemish Radio Choir, the Ghent Madrigal Choir, Dulcisona and In Dulci Jubilo will be performing this masterly epic conducted by Sir Neville Marriner in memory of the victims of 9/11 – 10 years to the day after the event.

The work of Franz Liszt (1811-1886) is very much a unifying theme running through this year’s KlaraFestival programme.
The young French orchestra Les Siècles and its director-conductor François-Xavier Roth open the Festival with a utopian, symphonic poem: Eine Symphonie zu Dantes Divina Commedia. In this work Liszt evokes the downward spiral through the horrors of hell and the journey through purgatory towards paradise.

The subject of redemption remained with the composer at the end of his life and found new expression in the gripping choral work Via Crucis. The 12 singers of the Dutch collective Compagnie Bischoff and the Dutch pianist Ronald Brautigam will be bringing this staged liturgy to the concert hall. This musical interpretation reveals a composer who holds up a mirror image to the giant of the piano that Liszt once was.

The Russian director Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra present an ode to Prometheus who stole the fire from the gods. The belief in the power of technology to control the future finds its origin in this tale of extraordinary courage and daring. Liszt’s symphonic poem of the same name and full of drama and heroics is a lesson in the power of people to emerge as victors over a fate decreed by the gods.

Jan Michiels and Markus Groh also place Liszt at the heart of their recitals on historical pianos during the lunchtime concerts.

Finally, it is Liszt who brings together theatre-maker Jan Decorte and pianist Claire Chevallier in the production Liszt/O Death. Five years after his production of Dido & Aeneas this time Decorte himself takes to the stage as bridge-builder between the poet of Greek tragedy Aischylos and the celebrated composer. Together with Claire Chevalier, Jan Decorte travels the road in the opposite direction, a road of hope that leads from death to birth, from darkness to light as in his adaptations of the Oresteia . The choice made from the many works for piano composed by Liszt is in itself revealing: it is not Liszt the all-dominant virtuoso composer we have here but the hushed poet who in many ways showed the path to the future.
 

This year the KlaraFestival has chosen Grammy Award-winner René Jacobs as Artist in Residence. This Belgian director of international renown brings two concertante opera productions to the festival: Haydn’s Orlando Paladino and Händel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo. Jacobs conducts both the Freiburger Barockorchester and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.


10 years ago New York was the victim of the terrorist attack on the WTC towers. In memory of the many victims Neville Marriner and the Brussels Philharmonic will be performing the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten together with the Flemish Radio Choir, the Ghent Madrigal Choir, Dulcisona and the boys’ choir In Dulci Jubilo.

The vocal quartet centred around the soprano Marlis Petersen and the tenor Werner Güra is without doubt the best ensemble of its kind. In 1849 Robert Schumann wrote three cycles for this strength: The Spanisches Liederspiel and the Spanische Liebeslieder with Spanish texts, translated by Emanuel Geibel, and the Minnespiel with texts by Rückert.

It is not only the name of British violinist Daniel Hope that expresses the central theme of the KlaraFestival. Together with the pianist Sebastian Knauer he is devoting a full programme to the legendary 19th century violinist Joseph Joachim. 

The KlaraFestival is presenting two of the world’s top orchestras. The utopian music centred around Prometheus will be performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the charismatic Vladimir Jurowski. With Nikolai Lugansky they also have with them an absolute first class pianist who, in Rachmaninov’s fiery Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, can give full rein to his transcendental technique. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra will be performing Benjamin Britten’s Les Illuminations with the fantastic British tenor Ian Bostridge. Britten composed this cycle of 10 songs for tenor and string orchestra using poems by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud. The conductor Roger Norrington needs little introduction as a pioneer of historical performance practice.

The KlaraFestival not only sheds the spotlight on established concert performers, but also likes to showcase young talent.

The young London Haydn Quartet from the UK originated in a passion for Haydn and play on gut strings. They will be performing a number of Beethoven’s late string quartets, including the extremely difficult Grosse Fuge.

In 2010 the Hungarian Petra Somlai won the international competition Musica Antiqua, held in Bruges, in the pianoforte category. Together with the Belgian oboist Benoit Laurent, who two years earlier had won the same prestigious international competition in the oboe category, they will be presenting a very rich lunchtime programme of works by Gabriël Fauré and Robert Schumann.

A year after their official maiden concerts at the 2010 KlaraFestival, the Maeterlinck Quartet will be returning to the festival stage. The young string quartet will be performing early 20th century Russian music on gut-strung instruments.
 

The KlaraFestival also creates space for interdisciplinary and inventive projects that present classical music in a different light:

The Antwerp group Dez Mona mixes their gospel, jazz and spiritual sound with the baroque tones of the B.O.X. duo. Together with lightshow artist and designer Véronique Branquinho the result is Sága, a semi-staged concert.

When the world is in ruins, what can the music of a 17th century composer such as Heinrich Schütz possibly signify? That is the central question posed in the new production Utopia 47 - a very last passion, by the Belgian conductor Eric Sleichim and his BL!NDMAN collective.

In September 2010 the Brussels Flanders Festival and MET-X Moving Music launched Shanti! Shanti!, a group of singing children aged between 6 and 13 from Brussels. Shanti! Shanti! has some crazy voices, rare talent and colourful sounds that will be heard for the very first time at the KlaraFestival. 

This year once again the sounds of classical music will be heard at a hip Brussels nightclub. Club K sees the internationally famous Raschèr Saxophone Quartet present a varied programme of music ranging from Bach to Glass.
 

The KlaraFestival is one of Europe’s first festivals to place a particular emphasis on the Historically Informed Performance (HIP) of both baroque and classical, romantic and modern music. The artistes opt for performances that are true to the original style (but not dogmatic!), based on a search for sources and performance history. They try to have the music sound as the composer intended with attention to orchestral strength, the instruments and the playing style, while not losing sight of contemporary concert practices.

Tickets go on sale on 1 June! They can be ordered on 070/21.02.17 or via de website www.klarafestival.be. With the KlaraFestival Pass you can attend all the concerts for just €69!

The 2011 KlaraFestival concerts will be held at the Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Flagey, Kaaitheater and De Munt.

For more information or questions please contact Herlinde Deconinck on 02/548.95.97 – 0474/47.47.15 or at herlinde@festival.be.