Fasten Seat Belts!

Alain Altinoglu

A pure C chord, resounding brasses, thunderous timpani … Slowly, the first light of day breaks through the darkness. No wonder Stanley Kubrick found the perfect soundtrack for a cosmic sunrise in the opening bars of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra!  

The composer found the inspiration for his Tondichtung in Friedrich Nietzsche’s novel of the same name, which, through the mouth of his prophet, disseminated radically new views about life and death and just about everything in-between. Nine chapters from the book found their way into a score characterized by tremendous drive, richly varied orchestral tones and sweeping soundscapes.  

Another ‘landscape’, that of Torbjörn Iwan Lundquist for strings, piano and tuba, here performed by La Monnaie soloist Stephan Vanaenrode, will find a Scandinavian counterpart in this concert programme in Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite. But first, Alain Altinoglu and the La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra will kick off this final concert with a bang: Fasten Seat Belts! by Luc Brewaeys, the Belgian composer who, ten years after his death, is being celebrated throughout Belgium. His ‘Nightmare for Orchestra’ rushes at breakneck speed through unisons, quarter tones and sound explosions. Buckle up!