Notes from Brussels

Philippe Souvagie

Lena Verstraeten

Hilda Venken

Let us introduce Philippe, Lena and Hilde from the Flemish Radio Choir. They keep you posted about their work within this wonderful ensemble.

Choeur@coeur-concert

posted July 1st, 2008

C-C promised to be an interesting production. Not only is the radio choir performing in it, but also Musa Horti, a high standard amateur choir. The only way we had worked with this guest choir before, was in a masschoir, and so we didn’t really knew how both choirs would interact and how the two sounds would mix. Both points turned out to be no problem at all.

The programm was very well appreciated by the audience. Even for listeners who are not used to choirconcerts, it was not hard to be touched by the emotional choice of music. Mahlers ‘Ich bin der Welt abhanden’, of course, and also the new work that was composed for this production, Alain DeLey’s music on poems from Catullus and Dylan Thomas, are very romantic music, as far as I am concerned. Shakespeare’s ‘Songs of Ariel’, on the other hand, are short pieces with quickly changing atmosferes, that sound more like contemporary music usually does. Whereas the other work by Franck Martin, his mass for double-choir, is again rather romantic to me.

The hard thing about working with an amateur choir, are the evening rehearsals. If you add them up with the concerts, it takes a lot of babysit-organisation. But I like my job –who wouldn’t want to sing for a living? - And I’m sure you’ll enjoy the result of our efforts as much as I did.

-Hilde

29 February 2008 – Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem

posted June 12th, 2008

This evening we’ll be singing our third concert of Brahms ‘Ein Deutsches Requiem’.

It is really a huge piece ! You can feel it from the beginning that there is a ‘tsunami’ of deep emotion around the theme of ‘Requiem aeternam’.
It is incredible how rich, refined and exact Brahms expresses so much comfort for those who mourn their beloved deceased and the concern of the finiteness of our own existence…
We bring the ‘ London version’ with accompaniment on fourhanded piano (reduction by Brahms, 1871). The performances of Inge Spinette and Jan Michiels are extremely moving. They really are splendid in defending Brahms’ music, normally with big orchestra, but now the expression is even more radical because of the purity of the piano.
I think it’s a great challenge for our radio choir to sing this piece with 25 singers.
Mostly this work is done by big choirs with around 80 singers…Then, the long phrases and effective fortissimos are not such a problem.
Now we need really good professional singers who can dose their energy and produce enough powerful voice without screaming.
I hope the viewers and listeners can enjoy our performance. The location was not as effective as when we sing in a church. The theatre in Leuven is more suited for other performances.
As a choir singer, one should once in his life sing this piece, so I feel privileged now to have the occasion.
Not to forget, the Belgian Soprano Hilde Coppé sings marvellously and Baritone Marc Scoffoni does a perfect job, enjoy !

Philippe