After Wagner's Rheingold at the Munt, Alain Altinoglu now performed the Rhine at Bozar with Schumann's Rheinische, his third symphony. But first there was an overture from Die Rheinnixen or Les Fées du Rhin by Jacques Offenbach. Also with a Rhine connection. Swift as always, Altinoglu takes to the podium. And as the packed hall greets him almost with cheers, he seems to be more than ordinarily popular. An equally warm reception was given to that young concertmaster and violinist Sylvia Huang.
The opening was thus for that Fairy Chorus overture which Offenbach later used as a Barcarolle in his Les Contes d'Hoffmann. The orchestra brought that beloved gem with an extremely refined finish. It was a surprise when subsequently the Youth Choir of the Munt appeared in full regalia. Uniformly dressed in a long red gown, all women except for a few boys, who wore black suits but with appropriately bright red ties. Another feather in the cap for the Munt's costume department. Wonderfully beautiful and so was the work they came to sing. Dickinson Songs by Walloon composer Benoît Mernier. With what a wealth of colour and expanded instrumentation he set those few poems by American Emily Dickinson to music, including marimba and vibraphone. Now fairy-tale-like, sometimes heavily composed, then again feather-light as the poetry of the song Snowflakes demanded. Harmonically swelling waves resound "My garden like the beach" and sometimes the voices shoot in all directions and those voices, there are more than fifty of them, and they all sing the seven songs without a score. Skillfully done. Since Jeroen D'hoe's Songs for the Crossing I have not heard a more beautiful work for choir and orchestra than Mernier's Dickinson Songs.
The concert closed with what was probably meant to be the crowd-pleaser on the bill, Die Rheinische by Robert Schumann. Classical and neatly executed, all five movements more than competently performed with especially much pure work for the horn players and the other brass players. Predictable symphonic music by a composer who found inspiration in that mighty Rhine while travelling from Dresden to Düsseldorf (where he could become city conductor). But the undisputed discovery of the evening was without doubt the song cycle for which Mernier found his inspiration in that mysterious poetry of the enigmatic 19th-century American poetess Emily Dickinson.
One more thing: thunderous applause for all performers but also and especially for second violinist Eric Robberecht. After many years of faithful service, he was honoured, as with this concert he took his leave from his desk at the Munt Orchestra.
WHAT: Overture from Les Fées du Rhin. Jacques Offenbach; Dickinson Songs, Benoît Mernier; Die Rheinische, third symphony by Robert Schumann.
WHO: Symphony Orchestra of the Munt cond. Alain Altinoglu and the Youth Choir of the Munt cond. Benoît Giaux.
WHERE: Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels
WHEN: Sunday 19 November 2023