Maestro Stéphane Denève is back, in the good company of Schumann & Brahms.

Although he now lives and works in the United States, Stéphane Denève loves to return to ‘his’ Brussels Philharmonic! He has chosen a classical programme that fits him like a glove, and takes him to familiar territory.

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First comes Schumann’s Cello Concerto, performed by the winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2022, Hayoung Choi, who was accompanied by the Brussels Philharmonic and Stéphane Denève at the competition final! The work has become immensely popular, thanks primarily to its originality and range of emotions – from a quiet intimacy to carefree joviality. But also as a result of the support of a succession of top soloists who have placed this concerto on their repertoire and taken it around the world, convincing audiences of the beauty that Clara Schumann had already heard in it.

This is followed by Brahms’ 2nd Symphony, a beautiful work that rolls through the concert hall like a musical dream. The contrast between Brahms’ Second Symphony and his First (which he spent 15 years completing) is undeniable. The first sounds almost tragic, while the second is lively and even cheerful – albeit with enough ‘dark’ Brahms features. In any case, he cannot conceal the carefree summer days at his workplace where he wrote this symphony, the idyllic Austrian Wörthersee: its nickname ‘the Pastoral’ is thus justified, as the music rolls on without a care, dreaming of a promising spring day in nature.