An Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss sounded like a welcome gift, offered by the Lemmens Institute in Leuven. The Mahler Student Festival Orchestra specializes in monumental symphonic repertoire, including this work, Mahler's Ninth, Bruckner's Ninth, and Beethoven's Ninth in 2025, and César Franck's What One Hears on the Mountain in 2026.
The musicians – a selection from the elite of European conservatories – were in excellent form and confirmed their high caliber through intensive coaching, dedication, and ensemble playing. Yet, when listening to such engagement, a persistent question arises: how do they reconcile this exceptional artistic commitment with the needs of their youth and their continued growth?
Grim Ongena, who performed in a dual role as leader of the percussion section and composer, opened the evening with his creation The Ecstasis of Flight. Will his trajectory unfold like that of an avant-garde artist within this context? The audience listened attentively to this ambitious work, which premiered earlier, in 2025, with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.
A 'Hermeneutical' Work
The cohesion, consistency, and precision of the MSFO made a profound impression: in more than one respect, this became a true 'Alpine Symphony.' Conductor Lars Corijn seeks an almost perfect unity within the orchestra and knows how to foster synergy and build trust like few others. The artistic approach emphasizes an in-depth study of the work, aimed at uncovering the meanings embedded by the composer. This reconstructive reading constitutes an essential contribution by the MSFO to the cultural field, where its hermeneutical approach is gaining increasing recognition.
Allegory of Knowledge
Two symphonic poems were placed in juxtaposition here. Both Franck and Strauss undertake their musical journey as a voyage that, beyond the literal ascent of the mountain range, also entails a spiritual initiation – a striving for knowledge. The path is prepared by Franck's orchestral meditation, inspired by Victor Hugo, in which human solitude resonates in the confrontation between human and natural voices. Strauss translates this into a striving for genius, in line with – but also transcending – the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, whom he admired: a purification and redemption through art.
We are drawn into an almost revelatory experience, constructed through a steady crescendo toward a moment of sublime intensity. The evocation of the Alps – their immovability and timelessness – exerts a bewitching fascination: the familiar world fades, time yields to eternity. The landscape unfolds, until an inner panorama becomes visible, an 'inscape' in which the self is formed. Especially the brass players are driven to the utmost here to make space and distance tangible.
In broad, romantic phrases, the transition from night to day, from the unknown to the recognizable, takes place. The music appeals to all the senses: fragrant forest clearings, steep rocks, birdsong, flowing water, circling birds of prey – a world that seems reborn. Nature remains the same, yet we experience it as renewed, as if we were beholding it for the first time. This rediscovery, so characteristic of Romanticism, becomes a form of knowledge, an expansion of human consciousness.
Dramatic moments emerge in sharply articulated signals, carried by a serious register that underscores the majestic panorama. Wild life and its hidden threats become palpable – listen to the pleading strings. Yet a sense of sublimity remains dominant: at the summit reigns a royal majesty, both literally and symbolically. This ascent opens a perspective on the transcendent, in which the unspeakable announces itself as an overwhelming 'more'.
The descent mirrors the ascent. The storm – as intense as the summit – marks a reversal, a movement from zenith to nadir. Unrest and threat give way to reconciliation: a return to the earth, to the origin, after the quest for knowledge is completed.
The MSFO proved itself particularly powerful in this impressive interpretation. If the death of Gustav Mahler in 1911 prompted Richard Strauss to return to the symphonic poem during his stay in Heimgarten, then both the orchestra and the composer honored his legacy with a performance that endures.
