This Sunday morning concert series at the Fakkeltheater has developed into a cordial event. You might say, classical music in a special league. There is vibrant music-making and singing. With sparkling eloquence, hostess Lissa Meyvis links the various works together and performs some songs with charisma as well. At the piano Lester Van Loock, cello Yunah Proost. Their DNA is music. They shine on the small stage. Slower sections alternated with fiery pieces in a succession of tempo, cadence and atmosphere-creation. Composers, instrumentalists, characters that weave different lines through each other in a perfect and compelling dialogue.
Setting the scene
To wipe the last remnants of sleep from the eyes and create a warm, peaceful atmosphere, the trio starts with a Wiegeliedje by Lodewijk Mortelmans and then takes the audience into passionate French realms with compositions by Jules Massenet, Claude Debussy and César Franck.
Massenet, mainly known for his great operas, also composed small gems such as Elégie. In this lamentation, the sonorous sound of the cello spreads a warm blanket from which the voice of Lissa Meyvis bubbles up like sparkling champagne. Following and in the same atmosphere is the song C'est l'extase langoureuse by Claude Debussy. Sensuous music, sensual and enchanting. Instruments and voice that form an interplay like a couple in love.
The first part concludes with Sonate A-Dur for violin and piano by César Franck in an arrangement for cello by Jules Delsart. This composition too is about love. The Belgian/French composer César Franck dedicated the sonata as a wedding gift to his friend Eugène Ysaÿe. Complex, atmospheric and melancholic, this sonata regularly appears in recitals and on recordings. The piano part is relatively difficult and requires considerable technical skill. Yunah Proost provides counterbalance with the warm sound of her instrument. Both instrumentalists hold the audience spellbound and create a restrained enchantment. Pianist Lester Van Loock with his upright distinction and refined elegant style, the very young cellist Yunah Proost fragile and vulnerable and inspired passion. Both of them are bubbling inside and pour their soul into the music.
Other horizons
After the interval, quite different musical atmospheres are explored. Lissa Meyvis sets the mood with the song Die Drei Zigeuner by Franz Liszt as a prelude to The Second Hungarian Rhapsody from a series of 19 rhapsodies for piano on Hungarian folk themes by Liszt. A tour de force and right up the alley of Lester Van Loock. With his inspired and sublime playing, he transports the audience once more into rapture. A piano solo that runs like an electrically charged current from the crown of your head to the tips of your toes. Bellissama, alongside well-known works, also searches for lesser-known gems from music literature. Lissa brings out a frivolous song by Ludwig Van Beethoven Der Kuss. Followed by Seit ich gesehen, Frauenliebe und –leben by Robert Schumann with which we venture somewhat into #MeToo waters. There is also Lachen und Weinen by Franz Schubert and soprano Lissa Meyvis proves to be a little fury when, with some irony and malice, she takes reviewers to task in the song Abschied by Hugo Wolf.
It concludes with the same Wiegeliedje by Lodewijk Mortelmans but in a different key. Was that a small hint for a siesta later on Sunday afternoon?
This edition of Bellissama with young artists who make sparks fly also leaves a deep impression. You don't need to be a great music expert to be carried along by it. It was pure enjoyment.
These intimate concerts in the café of the Fakkeltheater should certainly continue. The performers will not become rich from them. No princely remuneration, but love for the arts drives these performers. These young talented and dedicated artists deserve large stages and appropriate compensation.
WHO: Lester Van Loock [piano], Yunah Proost [cello], Lissa Meyvis [presentation and vocals]
WHAT: Bellissama, Belcanto & bella musica
Music: Lodewijk Mortelmans, Jules Massenet, Claude Debussy, César Franck, Franz Liszt, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf
WHERE: Fakkeltheater
WHEN: Sunday 8 January – matinee 11am