A concert evening full of primal power. The ballet score La Création du monde by Darius Milhaud tells the story of the creation of the world with the flavour of Harlem Jazz; while Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra has forever become the soundtrack of human consciousness thanks to Stanley Kubrick.

That said, the Brussels Philharmonic also makes its own bit of history. Together with the Orchestre National de France, we commissioned Relatos, a new concerto for orchestra by Argentine composer Martin Matalon.

king of tone poems

Richard Strauss was the king of tone poems, a genre in which composers try to translate a non-musical subject into notes. For example, after a trip to the ‘land of the boot’ Strauss wrote Aus Italien, and a day in the mountains inspired his Alpensinfonie.

Most of the time, however, Strauss got his ideas from literature: the windmill fighting of Don Quixote, the mischief of Till Eulenspiegel or the Shakespearean drama of Macbeth. Although his biggest challenge is undoubtedly Also sprach Zarathustra. Because how on earth do you translate Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophies into a piece of music? Apparently it can be done with the famous, thunderous C chord in the brass instruments with which the composition opens.