Concertini programme 2024-25

La Monnaie’s chamber music season gives the musicians of our Symphony Orchestra – one of the artistic pillars of our house – the opportunity to enrich their repertoire. In a hushed setting and with intimate instrumental ensembles, they will perform familiar works of music, but also have some wonderful surprises in store for you.

As usual, we will draw a connection with the works in our opera and symphony programmes. In line with our Ring cycle, we will continue the collaboration we began last season with musicologist Stijn Paredis from KU Leuven. Five concertini this season will be devoted to the fin-de-siècle aesthetics and the artistic circles of Les XX and La Libre Esthétique, which gravitated around La Monnaie at the time. César Franck, Claude Debussy, Vincent d’Indy, Emmanuel Chabrier, François Rasse and Joaquín Turina will all be featured.

The voice will also be very much in evidence. We are delighted to welcome the artists from the La Monnaie Choruses (conducted by Emmanuel Trenque) for two original programmes, one with the women’s chorus and the other with a mixed ensemble. The young singers of the MM Academy will surprise us on several occasions, among others during the traditional Wild Cards and the concert presenting the new Soloists and Laureates. Baritone Werner Van Mechelen and pianist Florestan Bataillie will give a recital in which Gabriel Fauré’s Cinq mélodies de Venise resonate with lieder of Hugo Wolf, Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler and songs of Ralph Vaughan Williams. After many years as répétiteur, pianist Inge Spinette will be bidding farewell to La Monnaie. On this occasion, she will be reunited with her faithful singing friends for what promises to be a particularly festive concert.

We will also be celebrating the birthdays of Gabriel Fauré, Francis Poulenc and Pierre Boulez by dedicating some of our concerts to them. Following on from the operatic performances of our diptych on Claudio Monteverdi, it is with great pleasure that we welcome the musicians of the Cappella Mediterranea ensemble to delve deeper into the baroque chamber music repertoire. Lastly, contemporary music will not be forgotten. We reunite with composers Kris Defoort, Mikael Karlsson and Harold Noben – all on the bill of the opera season – in programmes dedicated to our different ensembles.

Like last season, the calendar and programme are published on our website at the beginning of June and in the form of a leaflet in September. The formula remains unchanged, however: every Friday at lunchtime from early October to mid-June, we open the doors of the Grand Foyer for a warm musical moment accessible to all!