deFilharmonie . Martyn Brabbins

deFilharmonie provides you with the opportunity to hear the world-class British clarinettist Michael Collins, having previously been a great success at our last two composer happenings. Martyn Brabbins, one of the top specialists in modern music, is no stranger here either. The 'grand old man' of contemporary spiritual music is undoubtedly the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928). His Fifth Symphony, written in 1986, is a one-part work arranged for a large orchestra. For all its sudden explosions of modernist 'angst', it is a distinctly melancholic, romantic work. The young Fleming Bram Van Camp (1980) knows exactly what he is pitched against with his new work. In the Belgian premiere we will hear the clarinet concerto 'Riffs and Refrains' by Mark-Anthony Turnage (1960). He wrote it specially for Michael Collins, who can tackle the ultra fast jazz-inspired passages as well as the more reflective arioso lyricism like no other. The work is a nice counterpart to the symphonic suite by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) which we immediately recognise from the film 'On the Waterfront'. Bernstein created a brilliant if rather excessive soundtrack which Elia Kazan used for his masterly crime film.