Katrien Baerts & Bart Verheyen met each other at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and have been a duo since 2006. They have had coaching from Inge Spinette, participated at the intensive 'International Lied Masterclasses' by amongst others Udo Reinemann, Helmut Deutsch, Julius Drake, Hartmut Höll, Mitsuko Shirai, Roger Vignoles and Edith Wiens and were invited in Aldeburgh (UK) for participation at the Britten-Pears Young Artists Program with Wolfgang Holzmair and Imogen Cooper. At the 'Forte Limburg' competition they became first laureate, they were guests at the program 'Vrije Geluiden' by the VPRO on Dutch national television and have been heard at Radio 4 in Holland and Musiq'3 Radio in Belgium.
REPERTOIRE
Their repertoire includes many Lieder from the popular German works like those of Brahms, Mahler, Schubert, Schumann, Strauss and Wolf as well as less executed compositions by Britten, Eisler, Gurney, Korngold, Messiaen, Poulenc, Raminsh, Shostakovich, Weill and Zemlinsky. An important principle of the duo is to perform less known gems from music history and to put the standard repertoire in a new light.
For information about the duo and suggestions of programs, please download the PRESS FOLDER.
RÊVES ET RÉALITÉS - Les Maîtres et Leurs Muses
The muses, nine Greek goddesses born of 'Mnemosyne' or the memory, have been a symbol of inspiration to which artists desire for ages. The French composers whom we gather together in this song recital, all Masters of their craft, did in fact find inspiration in some muses: Bertha Galeron de Calonne, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore or Augustine-Malvina Blanchecotte. This program has been named after the poetry collection 'Rêves et Réalités' by the latter poet. A lot of poems namely open the door for grand, romantic longings and dreams, while others are a way of dealing with the cruel reality.
EROS & THANATOS - Of Love and Death
Harawi is a grand, penetrating work by Olivier Messiaen which is rarely performed. It is inspired by the Peruvian version of the famous 'Tristan and Isolde' legend. Wagner's opera lasts for about five hours, but Messiaen tells his more abstract version of this archetypal story in less than an hour. Hallucinating nebulae, chanted sounds derived from Quechua, sultry chords and beautiful birdsongs alternate. The listener is taken on a journey of earthly love to a joint blend into the cosmos, through death. The work is preceded by German songs which are imbued with the same theme: fatal love.
IN EXILE - Composers in exile
Zemlinsky, Straus, Korngold, Weill and Eisler: who fled from Hitler's Nazi Regime in the early 30's and sought refuge in America. The first part of this recital shows the lighter, more lyrical repertoire by Zemlinsky and Korngold, written before war. In stark contrast, we relive the dark and bitter atmosphere of flight and oppression after the break, which is clearly audible in the music by Hans Eisler. We end the program with a little bit of Hollywood in musical fragments by Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht.
NEWS
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