Festival '20–'21 is in its final week, and it kicked off with a knockout duo recital centered on rhythmic exploration with artist in residence Brecht Valckenaers and acclaimed pianist Jan Michiels. For the second year running, Valckenaers holds the position of artist in residence, and he'll continue in this role for the next two years as well. Over this four-year trajectory, he's focusing on Ligeti's piano repertoire. Last year, the starting point was In 1951 I began to experiment with very simple structures of rhythms and sonorities as if to build up a 'new music' from nothing. What can I do with a single note? With its octave? With an interval? With two intervals? With certain rhythmic relationships?, composing from nothing, with Ligeti's Musica Ricercataas the centerpiece. This year, Valckenaers and Michiels tackle works for two pianos with Three Pieces for Two Pianos (1976).
as the linchpin. The duo performed a five-part program that put the listeners' sense of rhythm—especially that of the pianists themselves—through its paces. Fortunately, artistic director Pieter Bergé provided a fascinating and illuminating introduction before the recital.
The program wasn't limited to Ligeti's works alone. Conlon Nancarrow (1912–1997), an American-Mexican composer, experimented—much like Ligeti, but entirely independently—with rhythm and pushed the boundaries to their limits. Some of his piano studies are so complex that they can't even be performed by a single person. To bring his rhythmic musical ideas to life, he developed an original notation system that could be realized through player pianos. Later, Ligeti and Nancarrow met, and their mutual admiration was profound. As a token of gratitude, Nancarrow even composed a piece for Ligeti's 65th birthday: For Ligeti (1988). Alongside Nancarrow and Ligeti, Valckenaers' own work was also on the program. Like last year, he wove it together intelligently with the established pieces.
The recital opened with lighter rhythmic work by Ligeti: the sonatina from Five Pieces for Piano Four Hands (1950). This witty little piece was followed by two studies for player piano by Nancarrow: Study 20, arranged for piano duo by Helena Bugallo, and Study 6, arranged by rhythmic wizard and pianist Thomas Adès. In Study 6 Valckenaers played a continuously transforming boogie-woogie bass figure, while Michiels took the upper voice — a charming little gem.
Especially for this recital, Valckenaers prepared an extremely difficult transcription of For Ligeti, a work that had never before been performed by two "real" pianists. A true rarity, and it is certainly a unique work. It's hard to get a grip on, but as Bergé aptly put it in his introduction: sometimes it's better to zoom out on the music and experience it rather than analyze it — a real open mind and open ears mentality.
States of Matter (Valckenaers, 2025) formed the third part of the evening. Just as he last year intelligently wove his five rhythmic studies into the program of In 1951 I began to experiment with very simple structures of rhythms and sonorities as if to build up a 'new music' from nothing. What can I do with a single note? With its octave? With an interval? With two intervals? With certain rhythmic relationships?, he continues that momentum here with three pieces for two pianos. Valckenaers succeeds in building a bridge between rhythmic experimentation and accessibility. Following in the footsteps of Nancarrow and Ligeti, he starts from a rhythmically very high-quality core idea and builds it up steadily. His approach is apparently less radical, less "scientific" than that of Ligeti, for example, which gives the whole thing a more human edge. Furthermore, he employs his own harmonic language. States of Matter (states of matter) consists of three parts: the sensitive Liquid, the playful Gas and the imposing Solid. Especially Solid still resonates, with the almost ritualistic, resonant overtones in the coda.
The second-to-last part of the evening reintroduced us to work by Nancarrow: a fresh, youthful and melodically tinged piece that remains comprehensible and playful — the sonatina from 1941, in an arrangement for two pianos by Yvar Mikhashoff.
A monument to end with? Absolutely. Michiels and Valckenaers performed in the fifth and final part of the evening Ligeti's Three Pieces for Two Pianos. In this imposing work we find three fantastic pieces, based on rhythmic ideas from Ligeti himself, but also on those of the minimalists Reich and Riley, whom he so admired. Even Chopin pipes up for a moment. Michiels and Valckenaers manage to master this work and make it entirely their own — a real tour de force of hyperfocus. This triptych formed a fantastic finale to the evening, delivered by two rhythmic masters, but especially two top-notch musicians.
Later this year, the podcast series RECITATIVO will feature an episode dedicated to Brecht Valckenaers and his music. He will dive deeper into his compositional methods and discuss in detail two of his own works in detail.
