[last tickets] St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Stéphane Denève & Víkingur Ólafsson

A very warm welcome to Klarafestival!

Flanders Festival Brussels, Klara and our partners are delighted to greet you once again. “I believe audiences aren’t just listening. They are actively contributing”, festival artist Barbara Hannigan remarked in an interview. Concerts are an interaction between the audience, artists and anyone who is contributing to those magic moments in front of or behind the scenes. Together we ‘become’ music. 

As a conductor and soprano, Hannigan is a global reference point. With her, classical music becomes a contemporary and unique experience. This is an inspiration to Klarafestival as the largest broadcast festival in Belgium. Her versatile talent is sure to enrapture you, as is that of the many Belgian and international artists who connect past and present with musical stories.

Klarafestival opens in style with Hannigan as conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. After that, you will hear and see her with young musicians from her mentorship project Equilibrium Young Artists. In no fewer than 25 concerts, we present top talent including Les Talens Lyriques, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and Vilde Frang, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with Víkingur Ólafsson. Klarafestival also treasures creation. The film concert Reich/Richter as a symbiosis of Gerhard Richter’s paintings and the music of Steve Reich; the creation Counterforces by composer Frederik Croene to text by poet Dominique de Groen; and the music theatre production Prey by Kris Verdonck with a composition by Annelies Van Parys will surprise you!

This and all other concerts are possible thanks to the collaboration with our cultural partners: Bozar, Flagey, Kaaitheater, Théâtre Varia, Muntpunt, Concertgebouw Brugge and DE SINGEL. Thanks to our private partners KPMG, Proximus, Brewery Omer Vander Ghinste, Belfius, Interparking and the players of Belgium’s National Lottery. We are grateful for the support of the Flemish Community and the Brussels Capital Region. And finally, thanks to Klara and VRT: there would be no broadcast festival without their valued collaboration.

Joost Fonteyne

Intendant Klarafestival

Sergey Prokofiev
The Love for Three Oranges, suite op. 33 

About three years after his first opera, The Player, Prokofiev began composing his second opera, The Love for Three Oranges, in 1919. The latter was warmly received upon its creation in Chicago at the end of 1921. However, its bold and innovative nature subsequently met with much criticism.  

The Love for Three Oranges finds its inspiration in the absurd and comic street theatre of the commedia dell'arte. The opera tells the story of a Prince who is depressed. No one succeeds in putting a smile on his face, until the witch Morgana - an enemy of the throne - takes an unexpected fall. To avenge herself, Morgana condemns him to undertake a quest for three oranges. The Prince is eventually able to find the three fruits, but meanwhile becomes lost in the desert. His companion, the jester, is desperately thirsty and peels two of the fruits, from which two princesses appear, but sadly die immediately due to dehydration. The Prince peels the third orange, whereby Princess Ninetta is threatened with the same fate if the “spectators" do not quickly bring her a bucket of water. After several confrontations, during which the Prince and Ninetta foil Morgana's witchcraft, again with the help of the “spectators", they are finally united. 

In 1925, Prokofiev transformed the opera into an orchestral suite, which was initially received by Paris audiences with little enthusiasm, however, today the work is considered one of his greatest successes.  

Edvard Grieg
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A Minor, Op. 16  

Early in his career, Edvard Grieg composed mainly in a Romantic style strongly influenced by Robert Schumann. That changed when the Norwegian composer became acquainted with Rikard Nordraak, one of the founders of the Norwegian national music movement. Together with him, Grieg went on to develop a musical style rooted in Norwegian folk music. Nordraak encouraged Grieg to rid Norwegian culture of the German influence. Moreover, he founded the Norwegian Academy of Music in 1867, which became the spearhead of a Norwegian national music that he spent the rest of his life defending and applying as a pianist, conductor, and composer. Grieg wrote the Concerto for piano and orchestra, op. 16 during a stay in Denmark. To this day, the concerto is one of the most performed and popular works in his oeuvre. Franz Liszt, among others, was a great admirer of the work.  

Even though the concerto's spirit and arrangement are still clearly romantic, the timbre is undoubtedly Norwegian. Thus, Grieg allowed himself some freedom in form, but most of all in themes, orchestral colours, and rhythms. The main theme of the first movement refers to the 'halling', a Norwegian folk dance. The second is full of brilliant melodies featuring Norwegian rhythmic figures. The subtle orchestration brings delicate shades of colour to what is a moment of pure poetry. A bouncy 'halling' with emphatic accents is also heard in the third and final movement.

Sergey Rachmaninov

Symphonic Dances

In the summer of 1939, Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943) decided to leave Europe because of the turbulent political climate. Together with his family, he set sail for the United States, where he withdrew to the plush, sprawling Honeyman Estate in New York. The estate overlooks the harbour of Newport, where Rachmaninov’s hours of piano playing acted like a siren, luring many a sailor to drop anchor and listen in wonder. It was here that, three years before his death, the Russian composer wrote his final work: the Symphonic Dances (1940).  

Rachmaninov first gave to the three dances the titles ‘Noon’, ‘Twilight’ and ‘Midnight’ for good reason. These movements stood as symbols for the various phases of his own life. The work is also to be understood as a sort of musical testament, in which the composer plucks citations from his own works. Thus the first dance harks back nostalgically to the opening theme from his Symphony No. 1 (1895) that here however is given a serene ending. In the second movement, the erratic runs of the woodwinds lead the orchestra in a mysterious, almost bewitched waltz. In the third and last dance, up looms the Dies Irae, the bloodcurdling Gregorian chant from the mass for the dead that obsessed Rachmanninov throughout his life. However, aside from the Dies Irae, in this third movement the composer also cites the hymn Blagosloven yesi, Gospodi from his choral work Nachtvigilie (1915) that celebrates Christ’s resurrection. Rachmanninov plays the musical motifs around death and resurrection against each other in a culminating struggle, until finally resurrection triumphs. And as if his very last composition genuinely brought him release, he endorsed this tipping point in the manuscript with the joyful cry: ‘Hallelujah!’  

Bozar Archives

Stéphane Denève

Stéphane Denève is music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, artistic director of the New World Symphony and, from 2023, also first guest conductor of the Nederlands Radio Filharmonisch Orkest. Previously, he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Principal Conductor of Brussels Philharmonic. Stéphane Denève has a special affinity with the music of his native France and is a passionate about contemporary classical music.

Víkingur Ólafsson

Víkingur Ólafsson is one of today's most in-demand pianists. His CDs released by Deutsche Grammophon Philip Glass Piano Works (2017), Bach Reworks (2018), Debussy/Rameau (2020) and Mozart & Contemporaries (2021) have become an international success with millions of downloads. He has won numerous awards, including Opus Klassik Solo Recording Instrumental 2019 and 2020, Album of the Year 2019 at BBC Music Magazine Awards and Artist of the Year 2019 at Gramophone Magazine. The New York Times has since called him the 'Glenn Gould of Iceland'.

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is considered one of the leading American orchestras and is the second oldest orchestra in the country. At the heart of the SLSO's artistic foundation is its dynamic collaboration with Stéphane Denève. In addition to concerts in historic Powell Hall, where the SLSO has been based for more than 50 years, the orchestra is an integral part of St. Louis' vibrant community. The orchestra's musicians perform throughout the region each year at medical institutions, houses of worship, community centers and schools.

FIRST VIOLINS

David Halen, Concertmaster

Erin Schreiber, Associate Concertmaster

Hannah Ji, Acting Assistant Concertmaster

Ann Fink

Jessica Cheng Hellwege

Emily Ho

Melody Lee

Xiaoxiao Qiang

Angie Smart

Brian Allen**

Jessie Chen**

Kyle Lombard**

Natalie Gaynor*

Heidi Harris*

Jinyou Lee*

Marin Osawa*

SECOND VIOLINS

Alison Harney, Principal

Kristin Ahlstrom, Associate Principal

Eva Kozma, Assistant Principal

Andrea Jarrett

Nicolae Bica

Janet Carpenter

Lisa Chong

Ling Ling Guan

Asako Kuboki

Shawn Weil

Seul Lee**

Jacqueline Tso**

Natalie Lee*

Jecoliah Wang*

VIOLAS

Alejandro Valdepeñas, Associate Principal

Jonathan Chu, Assistant Principal

Andrew François

Susan Gordon

Chris Tantillo

Shannon Farrell Williams

Xi Zhang

Emily Owsinski**

Chloé Thominet**

Amy Greenhalgh*

Kathleen Mattis*

CELLOS

Daniel Lee, Principal

Melissa Brooks, Associate Principal

David Kim, Assistant Principal

James Czyzewski

Jennifer Humphreys

Alvin McCall

Bjorn Ranheim

Yin Xiong

Caroline Kim*

Grace Park*

DOUBLE BASSES

Erik Harris, Principal

Aleck Belcher, Associate Principal

Christopher Carson, Assistant Principal

David DeRiso

Brendan Fitzgerald

Sarah Hogan Kaiser

Ronald Moberly

Isaac Polinsky*

HARPS

Allegra Lilly, Principal

Megan Stout*

FLUTES

Matthew Roitstein, Principal

Andrea Kaplan, Associate Principal

Jennifer Nitchman

Ann Choomack

PICCOLO

Ann Choomack

OBOES

Jelena Dirks, Principal

Philip Ross, Associate Principal

Xiomara Mass

Cally Banham

ENGLISH HORN

Cally Banham

CLARINETS

Greg Williams*

Tzuying Huang

Ryan Toher**

BASS CLARINET

Tzuying Huang

E-FLAT CLARINET

Ryan Toher**

BASSOONS

Andrew Cuneo, Principal

Andrew Gott, Associate Principal

Julia Paine

CONTRABASSOON

Norbert Nielubowski*

SAXOPHONE

Michael Weiss-Holmes*

HORNS

Roger Kaza, Principal

Thomas Jöstlein, Associate Principal

Tod Bowermaster

Julie Thayer

Victoria Knudtson

Spencer Park**

TRUMPETS

Thomas Drake, Associate Principal

Christopher Coletti*

Michael Walk

Austin Williams**

TROMBONES

Amanda Stewart, Associate Principal

Jonathan Reycraft

BASS TROMBONE

Christopher Bassett**

TUBA

John DiCesare*

TIMPANI

Shannon Wood, Principal

Kevin Ritenauer, Associate Principal

PERCUSSION

William James, Principal

Alan Stewart, Associate Principal

Kevin Ritenauer

Zachary Crystal*

Sasha Luthy*

Kim Shelley*

KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS

Peter Henderson*

*Extra Musician

**Replacement