The Japan Information and Cultural Centre (JICC) welcomes music director Kazushi Ono for a special music talk centred around Brahms’ 4th Symphony. The event also marks the vernissage of Stef Van Alsenoy's exhibition The Clouds around Mount Fuji: Photo & Time Lapse Exhibition.

-----

“In his Fourth symphony, Brahms uses Baroque principles revealing a retrospective gaze in the finale of his own life.” Kazushi Ono explores Brahms’ final symphony, in which the composer definitively breaks away from tradition - the work is the pinnacle of his technical ability, perfectly balancing classical form and romantic expression. It is not only the culmination of Brahms' style, but also the literal endpoint: perhaps his most finite work, in which he confronts his own death head-on. The work ends abruptly in silence, before we even realize it... just like life itself.

Inspired by photos taken in the late 1920s by Japanese meteorologist and photographer Masanao Abe, Stef Van Alsenoy stayed for nearly a month near Mount Fuji in January 2020, time lapsing the evolution and movement of the clouds around it, always from the same vantage point.

Stef Van Alsenoy is a photographer, sound designer and recording engineer. His minimalistic photography is often landscape based - but is rarely about the scenery per se. Shapes, motion and textures are essential, as is the presence of visual silence. His sound designs are often acoustic extensions of visual arts or theatrical performances. He created soundscapes for, among other exhibitions of photographer Stephan Vanfleteren, performances of the Brussels Philharmonic and Vlaams Radiokoor, and theatre maker Kris Verdonck – as well as for his own work as a photographer.