‘Belgian National Orchestra, Hermus & Kantorow’

During this focus weekend, the Belgian National Orchestra, under the direction of chief conductor Antony Hermus, turns its attention to Brahms. In collaboration with the French piano sensation Alexandre Kantorow, both piano concertos will be performed. Additionally, the programme includes the Second Symphony and two Belgian premieres of works inspired by Brahms's music.

What Brahms facetiously described in a letter to Clara Schumann as "a very small piano concerto with a tiny, charming scherzo" is in fact a mammoth composition lasting 50 minutes, resembling a symphony with an extra piano part. Brahms' Second Piano Concerto has not three, but four movements: between the opening movement and the rondo finale, he wrote a tumultuous scherzo followed by an adagio.