3 October 2018, exactly 255 years ago, Leopold Mozart sat with his two child prodigies, Nannerl and Wolfgang, somewhere in a tavern in Tienen. Tired from the journey in the coach. The roads in our country had a bad reputation even then and just imagine it, that coach, potholes in the roads and probably also a homegrown shower of fresh rain: artists draw strength from it…
Little Mozart was seven years old, an age when boys then played in the mud – later the seven-year-old boys did that too, then I can confirm it to you as an 'experienced expert – but Wolfie preferred to play keyboard and violin and to compose. That's quite different and because it was not only so different, but moreover genius, papa Mozart traveled all over Europe to introduce his highly talented children wherever possible, especially where there was money to be made. That money did not flow as readily as snuff boxes and other trinkets, but the family could afford to tour for three years, among other places in the then Austrian Netherlands.
After reading Yves Knockaert's book 'Wolfgang Amadée', a Tienen goldenhearted merchant of luxury men's clothing, Bart Debbaut, was so captivated that he, already a great Mozart lover, immediately secured the large hall in De Manège to organize a Mozart concert on 3 October 2018. Thus it came to pass in the small East Brabantine city with its beautiful churches. You have to have ambition because the original idea of organizing one concert on that day became a Mozart week and more, the travel agency Selectair of Peter Vandevelde let itself be swept up in the Mozart atmosphere and organized a very interesting Mozart trip to Austria in the course of 2019, accompanied by Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort. Is a Mozart festival growing here similar to the Haydn biennial in Mechelen that was so successful for over 25 years? We say: let's do it!
The poster did not feature small boys, but seasoned musicians who in their careers have seen virtually every corner of the world. Roeland Hendrikx, our Golden Label Career laureate 2018 and Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort who received a Golden Label in 2012 for his Schumann CD, would perform accompanied by the orchestra CascoPhil under the direction of Ben Haemhouts.
Mozart's Most Beautiful Works
May I suggest that Mozart's justly famous clarinet concerto, like his 23rd piano concerto, belongs to his most beautiful works? And that his 41st symphony can leave no one unmoved? These three works and the overture to Le Nozze di Figaro would provide 600 listeners with a pure Mozart evening.
After a strong opening with the overture, Roeland Hendrikx gave everyone the urge to buy his brand new CD with that unique concerto after the concert. He was able to realize this with no less than the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of the renowned conductor Martyn Brabbins. More about this CD you can read elsewhere in our web magazine.
Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort introduced us to the straight-strung Steinway of Chris Maene. Mozart sounded somewhat different again on this admittedly clearer, more sparkling and engaging sounding instrument. This renovated piano has a future as a very important concert instrument. It will not stop at this one grand piano and we can be proud of Maene's achievement, who is further establishing himself internationally as one of the most important piano thinkers and doers in the world.
A beaming and satisfied Ben Haemhouts greeted the audience warmly with a beautiful human gesture towards his orchestra members after playing the Jupiter symphony, a work that offers new discoveries each time, however often you listen to it. This is more than the gateway to romance, it is romance itself. It is a book in itself, something for Yves Knockaert or Bart Debbaut?
- WHAT: 255 Years Mozart in Tienen
- WHO: Roeland Hendrikx, Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort, CascoPhil, Ben Haemhouts
- WHERE & WHEN: De Manège Tienen, Wednesday 3 October 2018
- PHOTOS: © Klassiek Centraal
