What does music do when the world is shaking at its foundations? War & Peace brings together three works that explore freedom, resilience and the will to live.
Led by Bart Bouckaert, the KCB Symphony Orchestra takes you from the boundless freedom of an eagle soaring through the skies in Péter Eötvös’ The Gliding of the Eagle in the Skies to Richard Strauss’ Second Horn Concerto. Strauss wrote this work during the dark years of the Second World War. The soloist is Alexander Bosch Berth, a KCB student and, at the same time, principal horn of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. Carl Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony, "The Inextinguishable", brings the programme to a powerful close. Nielsen wrote the symphony during the First World War. Yet what you hear above all is an indomitable will to carry on. The music builds towards a grand finale that stays with you long after the last note. Three composers, two world wars, one question: what keeps us going when everything is shaking?
