Belgian National Orchestra, Chauhan & Brimberg

The concert series Echoes of Brussels jumps back and forth along the capital’s timeline, focusing on memorable creations and residents. 

What happens when music doesn’t aim to impress, but dares to feel? The great traditions fracture, making room for something rawer and deeply personal. In Erwartung, for which the Belgian painter Jean Brusselmans (1884-1953) designed the decors in the Palace of Fine Arts in 1936, Arnold Schönberg abandons all form. A woman alone at night encounters the lifeless body of her beloved. What follows is an uninterrupted stream of emotions: confusion, fear, grief, and rage. Schönberg stretches this single moment into a miniature novel of pure tension. Sung by soprano Ingela Brimberg, this monologue gives a voice to a profoundly unsettled inner world. By contrast, Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll is an intimate love gift, written for Cosima and their newborn. The notes bathe in tenderness and domestic bliss, a rare moment of warmth. With the Adagio from his Tenth Symphony, Gustav Mahler reaches a fragile conclusion. Farewell, doubt, and stillness unfold here without compromise. Conductor Alpesh Chauhan adds subtle visual touches, giving the evening an extra layer of depth.

Dive into the world of Erwartung and discover the story behind Jean Brusselmans’s sets with a bilingual introduction by Caroline Veyt at the start of the concert, at 8 pm.

Visit the exhibition Jean Brusselmans. Painter by Nature at Bozar. 

Thanks to the players of the National Lottery and to the Tax Shelter of the Federal Government of Belgium through Gallop Tax Shelter.