It was no minimalist rain but rather repetitive rain when Saturday the two-day Walden festival began in Brussels' Leopoldpark. It was pouring. Yet the third edition of that festival was sold out. But the tent held firm and so did the audience. And it was much larger than at the two previous editions.
Brussels Philharmonic and Lorenzo Gatto.
Starting with the Brussels Philharmonic and Lorenzo Gatto and unveiling three top-level minimalists, David Lang, John Adams and Philip Glass, that's quite an attractive line-up. The showers favored David Lang with his Heavy Weight composition. It was just a matter of waiting for that downpour to pass. And the acoustics in the tent were quite decent, even though tent and stage were separated. And you immediately hear an American composer at work. A work that is permeated in all its uniqueness with American sound heritage. Strings, winds and percussion together, sometimes heavy then again light and of course rhythmic and repetitive. John Adams' inspiration source for his opera Nixon in China yielded him another work with which he could bring Mao onto the stage. "The Chairman Dances the Foxtrot." A galloping foxtrot, danceable music, almost entertainment with those broad orchestral strokes, rhythmic everywhere. An orchestral basso continuo with graceful melodic lines on top. Serious music but also not run-of-the-mill film music and the jazzy atmosphere is never far away.
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Brussels Philharmonic with Lorenzo Gatto (violin) and conductor Tom De Cock (photo Roger Creyf)[/caption]
Yet it is always very nice to become acquainted with something other than the "classical" repertoire. But Brussels Philharmonic is very proficient in that, skillfully led by conductor Tom De Cock.
How pleasant to recognize unmistakably that idiom of Philip Glass from the first violin strokes of Lorenzo Gatto, his first violin concerto. Giving a soloist a place against that minimalist and repetitive background is somewhat unusual in the genre. A role more than excellently and compellingly taken on by Lorenzo Gatto. The violinist seems to have moved far beyond the codes of his competition past. Each work received its rain shower but it was a real cloudburst that almost drowned out the most beautiful and quietest passages that Gatto played. But that could not diminish the emotion many felt for this deservedly popular work. Standing ovation of course.
Tania Giannouli trio
Time then for some jazz, but in a strange combination of piano, trumpet and oud. In jazz everything is possible and certainly with Greek pianist Tania Giannouli. With a few almost fading notes she began her performance and Brussels trumpeter Jean-Paul Estiévenart also joined in with ethereal sounds just like her Greek companion oud player Kyriakos Tapakis. "Fading Light" was also the title of the concert and of her latest album. The pianist remains in her support of the two soloists also minimalist and repetitive, with crescendos and diminuendos. And when the muted thoughtful trumpeter plays, "Kind of Blue" never seems far away. Beautifully attuned to each other, restrained and rousing. Pure class.
Joep Beving
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Joep Beving (photo Roger Creyf)[/caption]
Of a completely different caliber is this pianist. When he was warming up on his piano, he seemed to be rehearsing Bach. Very inward-looking and solely occupied. No wonder his first album also carries that title: "Solopsism".
He brings Peaceful Piano. And indeed in neo-classical terms this is simply called minimalism. His first touch makes me immediately think of that other "simple" pianist Erik Satie. He is certainly a quiet pianist and only asks the audience to applaud when he gives the sign. And that audience is completely on board and even looks with an angry glance to the side when catering staff make too much noise. It all sounds very relaxing, music for the lounge or the bar, or is that expressing it too disrespectfully? But apparently very well received and beloved.