On January 17 and 18, the Flanders Symphony Orchestra performed at De Bijloke in Ghent for the first time with Martijn Dendievel as chief conductor. He succeeds Estonian conductor Kristiina Poska, who has driven the orchestra's remarkable evolution in recent years.
The inauguration of the new chief conductor received considerable media attention. Dendievel is a Flemish cellist and conductor who, at just thirty years old, already boasts extensive international experience. In 2021 he won the prestigious Deutsche Dirigentenpreis, and last year the Flemish Ultima cultural award. In addition to his role with the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, he has been chief conductor of the Hofer Symphoniker in the Bavarian city of Hof since last season.
Dream
Under the title "Martijn's Dream," they will perform the same program from January 17 in Ghent in Bruges and Antwerp over the coming weeks. The title alludes to young Martijn's dream of becoming a conductor and to Tchaikovsky's first symphony, titled "Winter Dreams." Tchaikovsky was twenty-six when he composed his first symphonic work. Not yet the grand pathos of his later symphonies, but you can already hear the master's touch and how brilliantly and clearly the structure is crafted.
The program also featured Mendelssohn's violin concerto, performed by soloist Liya Petrova. A brief symphony by Luc Brewaeys also opened the concert, performed alongside musicians from the Spectra ensemble, specialists in Brewaeys' spectral style. "Is that music?" I overheard someone say during the intermission. He voiced what many were likely thinking, but programming contemporary Flemish composers is certainly bold and necessary, if only to get audiences accustomed to new sounds.
On Sunday, January 18, they performed Tchaikovsky's first again, preceded by Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture. This short concert was presented as De Bijloke's New Year concert, replacing the city of Ghent's traditional annual New Year concert, which was cancelled due to budget cuts.
Born Conductor
Twelve years ago, a Ketnet documentary introduced Flanders to the five musically talented Dendievel brothers. The oldest brother, eighteen-year-old Martijn, already had an invitation to continue his studies in conducting at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. "Cool," his younger brothers said—four of whom have since become professional musicians themselves. What's remarkable is that Dendievel not only has extensive international experience, he also grew up with this orchestra. As a young boy, he even started as a volunteer in the cloakroom to watch concerts for free.
I discovered Dendievel myself in a recording of a 2021 masterclass with conductor Ivan Fischer. Four selected young conductors were given the opportunity to conduct the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, one of the world's finest orchestras. Young ambitious conductors often tend to over-conduct during their performances, using excessive gestures to achieve their goals—as became evident from the masterclass.
Nonetheless, Martijn Dendievel is a born conductor. He conducts with tremendous energy, and you feel how he carries the orchestra along with him. That's also visually compelling for the audience. His movements clarify the dynamics and vigor of the motifs and musical phrases; with his hands and arms, he sculpts Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture and Tchaikovsky's first symphony.
How wonderful to hear something different from the obligatory waltzes and polkas at a New Year concert. "I'm a happy man," Dendievel addressed the audience afterwards. "Not a traditional New Year concert with waltzes and polkas, but perhaps you heard the waltz in the third movement of Tchaikovsky's symphony. We'll play one more piece and stick with Tchaikovsky—the waltz from Swan Lake." So the concert concluded with a spirited waltz before toasting the new year with champagne offered by De Bijloke.
Young and Old
Children and young people are welcome at the open rehearsals, with which Dendievel wants to open the doors to a new audience. A nice initiative, but the hall is still mostly filled with an older audience. There's nothing wrong with that. Older people remain active longer and will become increasingly important as cultural consumers in the future. Young people will eventually become old too, not the other way around, and will thus continue to fill concert halls in the future. Isn't classical music a cultural form that appeals more to the sensibilities of older people and less to youth culture anyway?
We can take the term classical literally when we read Martijn Dendievel's plans. After the Beethoven cycle under Poska, Dendievel will focus in the coming year on Schumann and Mendelssohn, symphonies that will undoubtedly appeal to the traditional audience. In addition, there is a focus on Slavic and Russian music by composers such as Tchaikovsky.
