Hisaishi in the glow of noble LED light

Let a hundred flowers bloom. Or let thousands of candles burn, as is customary during the Candlelight Concerts that Fever organizes just about everywhere in the world. In Brussels, the prestigious Concert Noble was set ablaze for the arrival of Trio Audelia and the lively music of Joe Hisaishi, virtually the only true house composer of Studio Ghibli.

Sound exotic? It is. Studio Ghibli is virtually the Japanese counterpart to Disney: a particularly successful producer of animated films, but with a shorter track record and a mythical, chinchilla-like forest spirit instead of a cheerful mouse as mascot. The iconic studio owes much of its success to Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of the company in 1985 and by far the most important creative mind. Miyazaki wrote and directed Spirited Away (2002), a gem that won not only the Golden Bear but also the Oscar for best animated feature. That's quite an achievement, right in the land of Mickey and Minnie!

At Ghibli too, a rock-solid duo played the leading role for decades, but behind the scenes, where Miyazaki called almost exclusively on his compatriot Mamoru Fujisawa, better known as Joe Hisaishi (°1950), his most Americanized nom de plume. The intense collaboration between these two men has been compared to that between Steven Spielberg and his preferred composer John Williams, and produced an extensive catalog of songs. From Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), an epic eco-fable from Topcraft – the direct predecessor of Studio Ghibli – through Castle in the Sky (1986), the first feature film, to The Wind Rises (2013), still Miyazaki's swan song to date: Hisaishi's once naive and then enchanting or soothing melodies are guaranteed to stick in the ears of young and old alike.

Fire-safe experiences

So it was no surprise to find a noticeably younger audience in the stately ballroom of the Concert Noble alongside portraits of crowned heads. Across the geometric parquet floor shuffled groups of friends as well as fathers and mothers with their sons or daughters carefully to their assigned seats. Their path was lit by thousands of candles. According to the announcer, there were five thousand of them, and they were indeed everywhere: on the stage, around the dance floor, on top of the stuccowork and at the beginning of each row of chairs. Not wax candles or real flames, but all flickering LED lights that made fire insurance unnecessary. Outside, the European quarter was still bathed in full daylight – the concert started at 18:30 – but inside hung an atmospheric gloom.

"As you may have seen or heard, our Candlelight Concerts are created with the goal of opening the genre of classical music to different audiences. That challenge seems to be met: more than 70% of the participants in the concerts are under 40 years old and most of them had never attended a classical music concert before", was how Fever's equally noble and luminous objective sounded in response to my question about tickets. Fever is a company headquartered in New York with branch offices in Madrid and London. The social platform, well, came to light in 2012. Inspiring people through experiences is the tagline, and that is what it has accomplished over the past ten years with increasing success and in various ways and places – through themed parties in LA and Liverpool, immersive exhibitions in Hamburg and Miami and Brussels concerts in various genres. Music by candlelight certainly proved to be a hit: "So far we were able to delight more than two million guests in more than 90 cities with performances in various spectacular places." The promotional spiel was reinforced by an almost sold-out Concert Noble.

Gentle summer day

The playlist that the ladies of Trio Audelia had compiled was considered a selection from Hisaishi's oeuvre. It was up to Dorelle Sluchin, the French cellist of this Brussels-based string trio, to announce the eleven songs by means of shorter subsets: music that they had grown up with according to their own account and which they had arranged for their ensemble based on existing adaptations for string quartet. Violinist Cléo Dahan and violist Elaine Ng – who was replacing her colleague Amalija Kokeza for the occasion – would also express themselves as Hisaishi fans. Not in so many words, but all the more so in deeds, as became clear immediately during the opening number. The equally simple as beautiful melody from Always with me, the melodious closing credits of Spirited Away, resonated in turn at each of the music stands, but nowhere as beautifully as that first time in the viola. Starting with an introduction may seem like an odd choice, but in this case it became an early sustained note and the occasion for enthusiastic applause.

During the subsequent pieces, the peaceful path was gradually abandoned. With the theme songs from My Neighbor Totoro – that chinchilla-like forest spirit from above – Kiki's Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky came more swing and energy to the stage. Striking in this regard was the frequent alternation of lively lyricism and playful pizzicato, which gave many an arrangement a recognizable character. Soundtracks from Princess Mononoke and Ponyo were also drawn upon, but it was once again Spirited Away that could count on the most applause from the audience. Both the wonderfully tender One Summer's Day and the innocent waltz named after the main character Chihiro, perfectly suited to this dancing setting, were played with great feeling. Trio Audelia finally made a grand impression with Merry-go-Round, the charming tune from Howl's Moving Castle: a carousel that could have easily gone on turning a bit longer. For although there were a few fleeting moments when the three string players had trouble finding each other in their ensemble playing, these pale in comparison to the animated overall picture.

The noble candlelight was only finally extinguished after an encore from Whisper of the Heart. Or how Hisaishi smuggled the breakthrough number of American singer-songwriter John Denver into the anime, and sang to all those present in the Concert Noble: Country roads, take me home. To the place you belong…

• WHO: Trio Audelia [Cléo Dahan (violin), Elaine Ng (viola) and Dorelle Sluchin (cello)]
• WHAT: Candlelight Anime: Le meilleur de Joe Hisaishi à la bougie
• WHERE: Concert Noble, Brussel
• WHEN: Friday 10 June 2022
• PHOTOS: © Ank Zwolle Fotografie
• ORGANIZATION: Fever
• WEBSITE: Candlelight Concerts