Some season brochures you flip through and put away. And then there are the ones that get you planning right away. The Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège's—for many simply the OPRL—clearly falls into the second category.
But don't be fooled by the motto An orchestra, a thousand colors. Those thousand colors aren't a marketing slogan. They describe a genuine artistic philosophy: tradition not as heritage carefully preserved under glass, but as material in motion. Over a hundred concerts, nineteen thematic pathways, and a dramaturgical coherence that ties it all together. That's no window dressing. That's a clear artistic vision.
Bringuier builds on
Musical Director Lionel Bringuier—the charismatic Frenchman who visibly elevated the orchestra last season—begins his second season with a clear but not prescriptive direction. The great repertoire gets its full place: Rachmaninov, Brahms, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Saint-Saëns and Mozart shine on the program. But Bringuier is too curious to stop there. Philip Glass, Danny Elfman, Jonny Greenwood, Steve Reich and John Adams—composers who push the boundaries of classical music—get at least as much stage time.
What stands out in the major symphonic cycle is precisely this refusal to limit itself to one style. The OPRL presents itself as an open system where French symphonic tradition, late-romantic grand forms and contemporary American voices don't displace each other but modulate together. Clearly structured, yet open in aesthetics.
Carlos Simon as structural countervoice
The creative key to the season is Carlos Simon, an American composer working as composer in residence . His music—rooted in African-American traditions, spirituals and jazz—functions not as an exotic addition or obligatory topical insert, but as a fully-fledged countervoice within the repertoire. Beethoven and Simon don't exist side by side on the program: they are deliberately placed within the same field of tension.
His new creation has its world premiere on October 8 and 9, with none other than Hilary Hahn as soloist. Now that's a statement.
A galaxy of soloists
The list of soloists is impressive and diverse. Behzod Abduraimov opens the season on September 17 with Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto. Joe Lovano brings a tribute to John Coltrane on September 25—a hundred years after his birth—in what promises to be an evening that will draw both jazz-loving classical fans and classical-loving jazz fans alike to the Salle Philharmonique. Ton Koopman conducts Mozart and Beethoven authentically on October 3. Evelyn Glennie strikes her percussion in March with Jennifer Higdon's Concerto, in a program centered on Steve Reich.
For piano recitals there's Benjamin Grosvenor (November 29), Anna Vinnitskaya (January 24) and Kirill Gerstein (April 4). But these recitals are more than an appendix to the grand symphonic narrative. In the intimate context of a solo concert, the perspective shifts completely: the piano as a concentrated orchestra in miniature. And don't forget the organ recitals on the authentic Schyven organ, where the hall itself functions as a resonance space. A thousand colors, but in extreme concentration.
The audience as co-programmer
This same philosophy of multiplicity also translates into audience engagement. L'Heure Symphonique is being reinvented: concerts at 7pm, streamlined to around sixty minutes. Not a simplification, but a redefinition of intensity. Music Factory approaches the repertoire almost like a laboratory experiment. OPRL+ seeks cross-pollination with other art forms. The free concerts – Music at noon on Tuesdays, the Special edition events – ensure that the threshold to the Salle Philharmonique remains genuinely low.
Then there's the à-la-carte subscription, where listeners are no longer locked into a predetermined season package but curate their own program. In doing so, the orchestra shifts from institutional programming to a model of shared curation. If that sounds too theoretical: it simply means you choose what you want to hear, and the OPRL takes you seriously in that choice.
Why Liège is worth the trip
For classical music lovers in Belgium, the Salle Philharmonique is something of an open secret. Liège is closer to most Flemish people than they might think, and the hall has something that's not a given: acoustics, architecture, and an atmosphere that truly brings a concert venue to life. And now also an orchestra that refuses to be a monument.
Under Bringuier, the OPRL has become less of a destination and more of a flowing stream of colors, tensions, and reinterpretations – a workshop rather than a temple. If that ambition translates on stage into the same precision and curiosity as in the programming, then this won't be a season that is simply "presented." It will be a season that unfolds – evening after evening, color after color.
Individual tickets go on sale from June 8. Subscriptions are already available. If you already know that Hilary Hahn in October or Nelson Goerner in April are must-haves on your calendar, don't wait.
