Schubert 9

Welcome Stephan Zilias! Our newly appointed music director Stephan Zilias welcomes the audience in style with an atmospheric symphonic concert. The main work on the programme is Schubert's Ninth Symphony from 1825, nicknamed 'the great': the largest and longest symphony by the composer, which he himself considered his only truly successful one. Schubert's Romantic lyricism and sense of introspection had a major impact on Johannes Brahms. Like Schubert, he manages to place a divine timelessness against the suffering of earthly existence in his Schicksalslied. The text that the choir of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen sings in the composition from 1871 reinforces that idea. Speaking of fate: the opener of the concert, the late Romantic Musik für Orchester from 1912, is an unknown gem by Rudi Stephan. The promising composer died at the age of 28 at the front during the First World War, but his music continues to resonate long after his death.