Born in 1984, Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort was 22 when he became laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition for piano. For his 40th birthday, the Davidsfonds Cultuurreizen, for whom he also works as a tour guide, wanted to pamper him and asked him to organize a trip of his choice.
He didn't have to think long. To Hamburg, where his beloved Steinway's are built. That way he could also visit the now "iconic" Elbphilharmonie in that port city on the Elbe, known as an architectural gem with excellent acoustics. It was on his bucket list and could now be checked off. There was plenty of interest in the offer. With 24 music lovers, we traveled with him for 4 days through Germany's second largest city. Where better could we start than in the museums of the Komponistenquartier.
You'll find everything there about Brahms, who began his musical career in Hamburg, about Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn who were both born there, and also about Telemann who was music director there for 50 years. There are numerous "pianos from that era" and of course our pianist couldn't resist trying one. An extra gift for his listeners. Before each visit and concert during the trip, our tour guide, a born storyteller, always provided a substantial introduction.
But a real gift day for Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort only came when he took us for a rare glimpse into the workshops where the famous Steinway pianos are built. Such an exceptional visit was actually only possible because our guide is himself a 'Steinway-artist'. A title that the company only bestows on their best pianists: they must play exclusively on a Steinway, own one themselves, and they are not paid for that title.
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Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort at the entrance of the Steinway & Sons factory in Hamburg[/caption]
It was in New York that the German emigrant Henry Steinway (formerly Heinrich Steinweg) started his piano factory in 1853, and in 1880 the Hamburg location was established. It was unimaginable what we got to see there: how they make the typical curved shape for the case of a grand piano, how they painstakingly glue together different layers of boards of very special types of wood, clamp them in a curved form and screw them so they have time to permanently retain that unnatural and indefinable shape of a grand piano. Wonderful! And then the soundboard or lid: all the slats it is made of are manually inspected, the 'flaws' in the wood marked with a red pencil to remove them, the sound of each slat compared to that on a kind of model-xylophone, listening to the sharpness, clarity, tone, warmth to also select the best boards based on the thickness of the growth rings. The inner workings, the hammers, the strings, the keys and so much more: incredibly, but there are 12,000 pieces in one piano that all have to pass quality control. It's not assembly line work but truly craftsmanship. Here 1300 grand pianos are completed per year. Incredible.
What can come out of such a Steinway piano, Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort showed us with great enthusiasm during a short recital in the showroom of this European headquarters. The 'Steinway-artist' performed pieces by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Chopin and Liszt for us, effortlessly. As listeners we were almost inside that brilliant piano. Wonderful to experience that live.
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Recital by Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort in the showroom of Steinway & Sons, Hamburg[/caption]
In the afternoon, another Hamburg monument was on the program: the Elbphilharmonie. It is an immense, gleaming glass structure, built on top of a brick warehouse from 1963 that serves as the foundation for the new building. Completed at 108m high with a wave-like roof that reminds one of the billowing sails of ships that once visited this German Hanseatic city. You can't miss it when walking around the new urban development project HafenCity Hamburg, right on the Elbe and next to the UNESCO World Heritage "Speicherstadt", the old, protected harbor warehouses. The design is by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and includes three beautiful concert halls, the largest with over 2000 seats, but also apartments and a hotel. The Japanese Yasuhisa Toyota gained worldwide fame with his design for the acoustics of the concert halls. For the cladding, he used only ingeniously designed oak walls and floors. How that would sound was for a later experience, because first we went one evening to the Hamburgische Staatsoper to experience a Tosca by Puccini in a production by Robert Carsen. A bit disappointing for those who saw his Puccini cycle in the 1990s at what was then the Vlaamse Opera. It was the identical same staging that he brought to Ghent/Antwerp. But that cycle definitely put Carsen on the map as an opera director. It was a fine performance now, but it sounded loud, both cast and orchestra. The staging did feel a bit dated.
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Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg[/caption]
Quite different was the final day with a matinee in the Elbphilharmonie. We had already seen the concert hall, but now we could "hear" it. Formidable, that sound. The Philharmonisches Staatsorchester with none other than Andrey Boreyko as conductor sounded equally formidable in that "surround" arena: architectural splendor with an overwhelming acoustics. We received from Josef Suk a spirited "Fantastiké Scherzo" full of Czech sounds reminiscent of Dvorak. How could it be otherwise when he was the composer's favorite pupil and later even married his daughter. Then followed a tribute from Igor Stravinsky to his compatriot whom he so admired, Peter Tsjaikovski. From his ballet music for "Le Baiser de la fée" he composed a divertimento, at times very broad and extensively balancing on "improved" Tsjaikovski themes but of course also pungent as Stravinsky himself. There were powerful crescendos and lyrical orchestrations that were abundantly reminiscent of Tsjaikovski. And then came listening to the unfolding of pure music, of an unmistakable and unbeatable genuine Tsjaikovski, his Fourth Symphony. Even more lyricism in that andantino but also those dreamy and original pizzicato passages from the scherzo. Almost stamping his feet, the conductor launched into the thunderous finale. A pleasure to see that charismatic Andrei Boreyko, known to us from his time with the National Orchestra of Belgium, at work, with his whole body, conducting with arms, hands, and even finger movements to keep that orchestra in check. Beautiful acoustics? Yes, but the spectacular orchestral sounds perhaps spread a bit too forcefully into the hall.
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Philhamonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg o.l.v Andrey Boreyko[/caption]
We experienced all of this under the inspiring leadership of Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort. For that, he had to come out of his pianistic comfort zone to now serve as a tour guide keeping a travel group together and under control. He did so with talent, attention and care for all participants. But our Steinway artist could easily let it all go the moment he sat behind his Steinway and could make that piano sing the way he likes to hear it. Excellent tour guide, outstanding pianist.