deFilharmonie . Philippe Herreweghe

Our featured artist series on the cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras would be incomplete without hearing him at work with an orchestra. So hop aboard and join us on our visit to the 'Great Masterwork' series from the deFilharmonie in Antwerp's Queen Elizabeth Hall. Together with his kindred spirit, the violinist Isabelle Faust, Queyras plays solo in Brahms' Double Concerto. The Double Concerto was rarely performed in Brahms' day. Eduard Hanslick described it as a 'tragedy with two heroes instead of one, two heroes constantly getting in each other's way'. But there is nothing like that with Faust and Queyras. As experienced chamber music partners, the two play to each other, merging together in a natural symbiosis. Philippe Herreweghe tunes his orchestra to them perfectly, giving them the freedom to inject life into the sparkling passages and to play out the long cantilenes in full. deFilharmonie is the protagonist in Liszt's symphonic poem 'Hamlet' and the Second Symphony by Zdenek Fibich. This Czech composer is positioned between the German and Czech music traditions. If you are a Brahms and Dvorák fan, then you will certainly like Fibich.