Classical Music Agenda: concerts in the Netherlands and Flanders

Songs of Travel

Sun, 19 Jul 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €20

Église Saint-Nicolas

England at the turn of the 20th century saw the birth of a generation of composers who were deeply committed to poetry and voice. Their music, of discreet elegance, reflects the search for an elsewhere — spiritual, amorous or pastoral. From Vaughan Williams to Britten, from Finzi to Gurney, these “songs” evoke travel in all its forms: wanderings, contemplation of landscapes, inner journey. Through these pages, a sensitive and lyrical England is emerging, where each word becomes a stopover and each note, a step towards infinity.

Satellite set

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €10 – €12

Redu

Lauréat de Génération classique 2025, l’Ensemble Satellite propose un programme de musique de chambre où répertoire et création dialoguent avec intensité. Génération classique, tremplin des Festivals de Wallonie, accompagne chaque année les ensembles émergents vers les scènes professionnelles.

Lark's Echoes

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €20

Église Saint-Étienne (Waha)

On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the death of John Dowland in 2026, tenor Maxime Melnik and lutenist Adriaan Lauwers offer a sensitive, intimate and deeply embodied tribute to the English composer, a major figure in Renaissance music. An undisputed master of lute song, Dowland was able to bring to a rare degree of refinement the expression of human passions, combining melancholy, introspection and great poetic delicacy. This program brings together a selection of his most famous songs for voice and lute, where text and music dialogue with extreme subtlety, revealing all the expressive richness of his language. These vocal pages are punctuated by Lachrimae and other iconic instrumental pieces, offering moments of breathing and contemplation. Through this alternation, Maxime Melnik and Adriaan Lauwers invite the public to immerse themselves in Dowland's universe, where the apparent simplicity of writing hides an intensity of rare depth.

KARAVAN & Simon Leleux

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €7 – €60

Founded in 2024 by Lorenzo Gatto, the Karavan ensemble offers a musical journey where rhythm becomes a story. With Bach meets East, alongside Ambi Subramaniam and Simon Leleux, Bach's Chaconne is reinvented into a living improvisation in oriental colors.

Lark's Echoes

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €30

Eglise Saint-Servais

On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the death of John Dowland in 2026, tenor Maxime Melnik and lutenist Adriaan Lauwers extend their musical complicity born at Les Nuits de Septembre 2022 by paying a sensitive and embodied tribute to the master of lute song.

OPENING CONCERT TCHAIKOVSKY / SHOSTAKOVICH

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €51

Liège

It is with Tchaikovsky’s inimitable First Piano Concerto that Lionel Bringuier opens his season: a sovereign work whose untamed fervor, its Cossack fire igniting brass and strings, and its popular melodies give an irresistible flavor to the “king of concertos.” The Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov, renowned for his phenomenal virtuosity, promises a dazzling interpretation. Shostakovich’s all-too-rare Sixth Symphony (1939), in three asymmetrical movements, subverts the classical model of the Soviet symphony. Inspired by Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique, the vast slow movement—tragic and introspective—embodies Stalinist terror. The two other movements, fast, ironic, and driven by a forced joy, serve as a mask to parody the regime’s official optimism. A quintessential subversive masterpiece…

TCHAIKOVSKY / SHOSTAKOVICH

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets

Gand

TCHAIKOVSKY / SHOSTAKOVICH

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €51

Liège

Valère Burnon

Sun, 20 Sep 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €36

Liège

“Valère Burnon does not shy away from rubato, nor from tenderness, nor from the infinite expansion of phrases, yet everything here is perfectly controlled, at once distanced and deeply invested.” — MUSIQ’3 At 27, the Belgian pianist Valère Burnon saw his career take off when he won Third Prize at the 2025 Queen Elisabeth Competition, along with the Audience Prizes from Musiq’3 and VRT. After a Debussy Prelude establishing the theme of night, he performs two excerpts from Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, Olivier Messiaen’s vast, richly colored fresco, continues his journey with Claude Ledoux’s The Caressing Sounds of Evening and Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, one of the greatest piano masterpieces of the 20th century, before highlighting the formal perfection of Schubert’s most expansive sonata.

David Kadouch, Sheva Tehoval, Or Notes Brass

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €5 – €26

Ferme de la Petite Cense

Territoire inexploré, promesse de renouveau, pays de tous les excès ou réalité ambiguë, l’Amérique a apporté à la musique classique un élan et une vitalité nouvelle, nourrie par le métissage des cultures. C’est cette diversité que nous célébrons, grâce à des musiciens d’exception! Le merveilleux pianiste David Kadouch est rejoint par la soprano Sheva Tehoval, lauréate du Concours Reine Elisabeth, et par le formidable quintette de cuivres Or Notes Brass. Ensemble, ils nous emmèneront dans cette Amérique fascinante et paradoxale, dans un concert qui culminera sur le célèbre Rhapsody in Blue de Gershwin!

Ensemble Danguy

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €30

Église Saint-Denis

Les Quatre Saisons ont connu mille métamorphoses dont celles de Nicolas Chédeville en 1739. Avec Tobie Miller à la vielle à roue, cette version historique fait revivre un XVIIIᵉ siècle pastoral et inventif où se côtoient travestissement musical et jeu d’identité.

Jean Rondeau, Quatuor de violes de gambe

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €5 – €26

Eglise Saint-Martin

Le retour, si propre à la musique: cet élan de répétition et de redite qui entraîne les lignes musicales dans des boucles et, par cette asymétrie, génère une tension ineffable, souterraine.Ce programme se veut comme un fil tendu et continu qui, alternant entre l’écrit et l’improvisé, puise dans un répertoire dont les familiarités communes transcendent les époques et les styles.On y retrouvera des pièces d’aujourd’hui qui font écho à celles d’hier, tout comme des œuvres du passé, visionnaires, qui, par fulgurances, s’extraient de leur époque.C’est une invitation à une immersion dans le son, au-delà du style.

Stephanie Van Vyve, Florian Noack

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €5 – €26

Centre culturel de Nivelles - Waux-Hall

- Walloon Brabant - Centre culturel de Nivelles - Waux-Hall

Cécile Poss, Shirly Laub & the Musiq3 Festival Orchestra

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €5 – €26

Église Saint-Nicolas

Offering true answers to common misconceptions – this is the angle Cécile Poss has chosen for her captivating podcast « ça part en fugue ». Exploring legends, rumors, and preconceived notions, it combines historical facts, surprising anecdotes, and historical research to shed light on what we think we know. It's a lively and enlightening immersion where myth meets reality, revealing Mozart in a light as human as it is fascinating. For the Festival, « Ca part en fugue » presents its 'live' version, accompanied by the Festival's string orchestra, comprising the best students from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, under the direction of Shirly Laub. Opening the program, Ensemble Satellite – three young musicians, winners of the Supernova competition and first prize recipients of Génération classiques – will take us off the beaten path!

Dialogos

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €30

Église Saint-Denis

In 964, the Canons of Winchester were expelled from the choir, accused of drunkenness and scandal. A thousand years later, around the Troparia in Winchester, four musicians revive this founding tumult, echoing the clash between insiders and outsiders, past and present.

Songs of Travel

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €5 – €26

Église Sainte-Catherine de Plancenoit

- Walloon Brabant - Église Sainte-Catherine de Plancenoit

Mozart / Beethoven

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €48

Liège

For his debut with the OPRL, the renowned Dutch conductor Ton Koopman moves between the final brilliance of Viennese Classicism and the promises of a new world. With his “Jupiter” Symphony (1788), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart brings architectural clarity, intricate melodic interplay, and the Enlightenment ideal of harmony to its ultimate point of balance. Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 (1803), while still rooted in this tradition, shifts its foundations: rhythmic complexity, heightened dynamic contrasts, and the primacy of expressive drive foreshadow a modernity based on energy, tension, and the assertion of subjectivity. Romanticism is on the way…

Quatuor Fustier

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €5 – €26

Malèves-Sainte-Marie Prieuré

- Walloon Brabant - Malèves-Sainte-Marie Prieuré

Peaceful forest

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 07:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €5 – €26

Colomban

- Walloon Brabant - Colomban

Forêt Paisible (2,5ans-5ans)

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 09:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €5 – €26

Colomban

Forêt Paisible propose aux tout-petits un voyage nocturne dans une forêt peuplée de créatures mystérieuses. Quatre voix se mêlent aux sons des métallophones pour créer un univers baroque immersif, où la musique et le jeu sensoriel éveillent l’imaginaire et célèbrent la beauté du vivant.

Winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €5 – €26

La Sucrerie

At the time of writing, the winner of the 2026 Queen Elisabeth Competition, dedicated to the cello, is not yet known. But it's a tradition! It is in the iconoclastic Gulda Concerto, which oscillates between classical, jazz and rock, that he/she will close the edition of the Musiq3 Brabant Wallon Festival, alongside the Orchestra of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, conducted by Robin Engelen!

Songs of Travel

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 10:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €8

Palais des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi — Congrès

Two completely opposed characters travel the same path: that of a musical journey. One rooted in Elizabethan England and the classical repertoire, the other focused on Broadway and American modernity. Between melodies by Vaughan Williams, Britten, Butterworth or Finzi and forays into music-hall and musical comedy, their trajectories gradually intersect. Central to the program, Songs of Travel becomes the place where they meet: an inner journey where a desire for elsewhere, memories of love and the quest for self are mixed.

Songs of Travel

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €18

Mars - Arsonic

Rachmaninoff, Symphony No. 2

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €55

Liège

With his Second Symphony, Sergei Rachmaninoff confronts the silence left by the failure of his First. The work does not aim for display but for expansion: elongated melodies, unabashed lyricism, and dense orchestration with a continuous undercurrent of melancholy. From the very first bars, the music unfolds in waves, as the composer establishes an atmosphere of rare intensity. Composer-in-residence Carlos Simon offers a double concerto, an OPRL co-commission, written for international star violinist Hilary Hahn.

Georges-Lucas Ilouridzé & Marina Ksovreli

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €5 – €26

PBA - La Réserve

Le duo Vent d’Est, formé par Georges-Lucas Ilouridzé à la clarinette et Marina Ksovreli au piano, nous invite à un voyage musical au cœur des mélodies d’Europe de l’Est. Leur complicité, nourrie par un profond lien mère-fils, sublime ce programme dans lequel tradition et écriture raffinée s’entrelacent avec élégance. Dans un dialogue expressif, le lyrisme se mêle aux rythmes dansants et aux élans passionnés. Lauréat de nombreux prix dès son plus jeune âge, Georges-Lucas Ilouridzé mène aujourd’hui une carrière de concertiste et d’enseignant. Sa mère, Marina Ksovreli, pianiste diplômée du conservatoire de Tbilissi, poursuit la sienne en Belgique depuis 1998. Ensemble, ils font vivre un répertoire imprégné de leur héritage culturel. Une invitation à la découverte et au partage.

André Manoukian

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €36

Palais des Beaux-Arts — Grande salle

André Manoukian, pianist, author and composer, goes beyond his media image. After Anouch, a tribute to his grandmother who survived the Armenian Genocide, he is pursuing an intimate and musical quest for his origins. With La Sultane, he celebrates his little sister, nicknamed “my sultane” by their mother. On stage, a complicit quartet, led by Mosin Kawa, Indian tabla virtuoso percussionist, with whom he shaped the project. For the occasion, Manoukian enriched her universe with artists such as the singer Arpi Alto and the percussionist Anissa Nehar. Between jazz and Armenian sounds, between improvisation and the memory of traditions, this concert takes us on a musical journey where each moment weaves a link between East and West. A rare evening, to be experienced intensely.

Rachmaninoff, Symphony No. 2

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €55

Liège

Masterclass Vittorio Forte

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 08:00:00 GMT

Tickets

Palais des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi — Congrès

Le pianiste Vittorio Forte animera une masterclass en compagnie de trois étudiant·e·s d’ARTS 2. Ouverte au public, cette séance de travail offrira un aperçu concret du dialogue entre un artiste confirmé et la jeune génération, au cœur du processus d’apprentissage et de transmission musicale. Une occasion privilégiée d’observer le travail d’interprétation au plus près.

La torre del oro

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €34

Liège

At the foot of the Torre del Oro in Seville—where ships once set sail for the New World—flourished the music of Alonso Mudarra, the great Sevillian master of the vihuela, a string instrument of Aragonese origin related to the lute, and a pioneering figure of early accompanied solo song. Drawing on his folías, tientos, canzones and villancicos, in which popular traditions and learned writing intertwine with subtlety, Christina Pluhar and her ensemble L’Arpeggiata undertake a musical crossing of the Atlantic. The ensemble brings together the elegance of the Spanish Renaissance with the Baroque heritage of South America. From the rhythms of Spain to the pulses of the Andes, a shared history unfolds: that of a music in motion, traveling, transforming, and continuing to resonate from one shore of the ocean to the other.

Satellite set

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 10:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €8

Palais des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi — Congrès

Winner of Génération Classique 2025, the Ensemble Satellite offers a chamber music program where repertoire and creation dialogue intensively. Génération Classique, a springboard for Wallonia Festivals, accompanies emerging ensembles every year to the professional stages.

Strings in the Spotlight

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 10:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €0

Liège

Five OPRL musicians invite you to discover major works written for string ensemble. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String Quintet No. 6 is among his final chamber works. Written around the same time as The Magic Flute, it captivates with its simple, luminous, and joyful melodies. This radiant atmosphere is also found in Johannes Brahms’s String Quintet No. 2, a mature work in which the composer confidently asserts his musical voice. Finally, American composer Carlos Simon, artist-in-residence at the OPRL, reflects on the Covid period, when daily life seemed to go in circles—like an “endless loop”—during the 2020 lockdown.

The planets. Transatlantic visions

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12

Collégiale Sainte-Waudru

Are you interested in transatlantic viewsObserving the cosmos from a transatlantic at full speed? It is the journey between England and America that the ARTS² Orchestra offers you, with students from the École Supérieure de Musique et de Danse de Lille, under the direction of Nicolas Krüger. It will celebrate Benjamin Britten on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death, with an American Overture that recalls his stay in the United States and his stylistic connivance with Aaron Copland. It will lead us to the symphonic suite The Planets, by Gustav Holst, one of the most popular masterpieces in the British repertoire, which also opened the door to a lot of music from the Golden Age of Hollywood! And as the United States discovered a new planet in 1930, the British composer Colin Matthews added Pluto to the famous suite, in a dense and remarkable piece of color. A concert that unquestionably deserves the Blue Ribbon, aka the Blue Ribbon!

Les Planètes: visions transatlantiques

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €15

Palais des Beaux-Arts — Grande salle

Are you interested in observing the cosmos from a transatlantic at full speed? It is the journey between England and America that the ARTS² Orchestra offers you, with students from the École Supérieure de Musique et de Danse de Lille, under the direction of Nicolas Krüger. It will celebrate Benjamin Britten on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death, with an American Overture that recalls his stay in the United States and his stylistic connivance with Aaron Copland. It will lead us to the symphonic suite The Planets, by Gustav Holst, one of the most popular masterpieces in the British repertoire, which also opened the door to a lot of music from the Golden Age of Hollywood! And as the United States discovered a new planet in 1930, the British composer Colin Matthews added Pluto to the famous suite, in a dense and remarkable piece of color. A concert that unquestionably deserves the Blue Ribbon, aka the Blue Ribbon! - Distribution: ARTS² Symphonic Orchestra and Choirs - Royal Conservatory of Mons, in collaboration with ESMD, École Supérieure de Musique et de Danse de Lille/Anthony Vigneron, Choirmaster/Nicolas Krüger, Choirmaster/Nicolas Krüger, director

Give me my money back!

Wed, 04 Nov 2026 16:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €0

Liège

Boos, scathing reviews, doors slamming: some pieces of music began their lives as spectacular failures. Too modern, too loud, too unsettling… in short, misunderstood. This programme immerses you in the great “flops” of history that later became masterpieces—where scandal often propels music forward faster than success. With Pierre Solot and the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, discover how failure can turn into dazzling triumph. Ages 13 and up

Give me my money back!

Thu, 05 Nov 2026 16:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €0

Liège

Dutilleux / Elgar

Thu, 12 Nov 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets

Mons

Composed in 1951, Symphony No. 1 by Henri Dutilleux unveils a strikingly original sound world: radiant colours, taut motifs, vibrant poetry—everything pulses with a mysterious energy that defies the dogmas of the avant-garde. A captivating masterpiece to rediscover! Completed in 1919, in the shadow of the First World War, the Cello Concerto by the British composer Edward Elgar is a deeply moving meditation, an elegy in memory of a vanished world, where lyricism becomes intimate and poignant. Victor Julien-Laferrière, unforgettable First Prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2017, conveys its intense and gripping emotion.

Dutilleux / Elgar

Fri, 13 Nov 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €51

Liège

The Breath of Notre-Dame

Sun, 15 Nov 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €22

Liège

“Whether improvising or performing from memory the most demanding pages of the repertoire, Dubois displays a rare musicality among organists.” — BBC Music Magazine Titulaire of the great organ of Notre-Dame de Paris since 2016 and recognized as one of the most brilliant organists on the international scene, Vincent Dubois opens his recital with one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most popular works, followed by pieces by leading Parisian organ composers: from Franck’s Second Chorale to the vast fresco by Maurice Duruflé on the hymn Veni Creator, as well as Saint-Saëns’s highly orchestral Danse macabre. He concludes with his own transcription of the Rigaudon, Menuet, and Toccata from Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin. Magnificent!

Benjamin Grosvenor

Sun, 29 Nov 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €36

Liège

“Pianism of the highest order.” BOSTON CLASSICAL REVIEW The outstanding pianist Benjamin Grosvenor returns to Liège for a recital covering more than two centuries of musical literature. The program features Sofia Gubaidulina’s rich and virtuosic Chaconne; a “Parisian” sonata by Mozart, already tinged with pre-Romantic character; Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata, famous for its opening movement shaped like a funeral march; Scriabin’s Sonata No. 2, inspired by seascapes and a storm in Italy; Liszt’s three Petrarch Sonnets, marked by delicate lyricism; and finally Chopin’s Sonata No. 2, whose deeply moving Funeral March forms the heart of the work.

Quartet in chiaroscuro

Tue, 01 Dec 2026 10:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €0

Liège

Founded in 2025 within the OPRL, the Andriesii Quartet opens the concert with Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 11, an intense and tormented work. Sketched in 1810, it was composed during a difficult period in the composer’s life, marked by romantic disappointments and deep inner turmoil. Beethoven himself described it as a Quartetto serioso, reflecting the raw emotion that runs through the piece. A shift in atmosphere follows with Debussy’s only String Quartet, composed in 1892. A work of full maturity, it reveals a rich sonic imagination, blending ancient and modern influences with exotic colors in a free and radiant style. Finally, in Warmth from Other Suns, Carlos Simon—composer-in-residence at the OPRL—depicts the mass exodus of African Americans fleeing the southern United States between 1916 and 1970.

Tableaux pittoresques

Fri, 04 Dec 2026 18:15:00 GMT

Tickets

Bruxelles

Composed in 1917 in England, the Tableaux pittoresques by the Liège-born composer Joseph Jongen radiate optimism and colour: pastoral evocations, dances, mountainous landscapes and popular festivities succeed one another in delightfully contrasting movements. The work is dedicated to Queen Elisabeth and is included in the programme celebrating the 150th anniversary of the sovereign. Faithful to her spirit of patronage and her support for young talent, the concert will bring together artists and professors from the Chapelle Musicale, in virtuosic works of the repertoire such as the sublime Violin Concerto by Jean Sibelius, a pinnacle of lyricism and intensity.

Tableaux pittoresques

Sat, 05 Dec 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €48

Liège

Winter is coming

Wed, 09 Dec 2026 16:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €0

Liège

When a wall of ice appears on the horizon, we know something important is coming… In music too, winter grips you by the throat: it is tension, anticipation, a gentle or violent threat. Between sonic storms, frozen landscapes and long musical nights, Pierre Solot guides you through this icy realm where every note seems to shiver. Bring your coats: the Orchestra will take care of raising the chill.

Winter is coming

Thu, 10 Dec 2026 16:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €0

Liège

100 % Chopin

Fri, 11 Dec 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €39

Liège

The Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie celebrates the poetic genius of Frédéric Chopin through two major works from his concert repertoire. Composed in 1830 when he was only twenty, the First Concerto already bears the imprint of the lyricism and nostalgia that will run through all his work — a deep melancholy in affinity with the sensitivity of Yves Henry, one of the most respected interpreters of pianistic Romanticism. With the Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante, Frédéric Chopin combines the airy melodic line of Italian bel canto (Vincenzo Bellini) with a heroic writing style, with proud and almost revolutionary accents.

Sheherazade

Thu, 17 Dec 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €36

Liège

Sheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov brings to life a legendary Orient, as imagined by Russian Romanticism, in a richly sumptuous orchestration. The violin embodies the voice of the mythical storyteller Sheherazade, who suspends the sultan’s fury through the sheer power of her tales. The Belgian conductor David Reiland conducts the work before a special post-concert meeting with the audience. Trained under Simon Rattle and Roger Norrington, he is Music Director of the Orchestre national de Metz Grand Est and the Sinfonietta de Lausanne, and teaches conducting at the Conservatoire royal de Liège.

Christmas Concert: Scheherazade

Fri, 18 Dec 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €51

Liège

A masterpiece of musical Orientalism, whose popularity spanned the entire 19th century, Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1888) is one of the pinnacles of descriptive music, inspired by the stories of Sinbad, Prince Kalender, and the wondrous heroes of One Thousand and One Nights. Joyful, radiant, and full of beautiful, energetic melodies, the Trumpet Concerto by Joseph Haydn, premiered in Vienna in 1796, is the last jewel written for the instrument in the Classical era and one of the signature pieces of the young German trumpeter Simon Höfele, a leading figure in contemporary trumpet performance.

Christmas Concert: Scheherazade

Sat, 19 Dec 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets

Namur

Christmas Concert: Scheherazade

Sun, 20 Dec 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets

Dortmund

New Year’s Concert: Mahler “Titan”

Fri, 08 Jan 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €55

Liège

A youthful work in which evocations of nature, popular fanfares, a funeral march on the nursery tune Frère Jacques, and klezmer-inspired themes coexist, Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony (1888) already reveals the composer’s extraordinary ambition: to contain, within the symphonic form, the diversity and vastness of the world. With Les nuits d’été, a cycle of six poems by Théophile Gautier originally composed for voice and piano, Hector Berlioz lays the foundations of a new melodic world, freed from the sentimentality of the romance. The orchestral version, conducted by Lionel Bringuier, unfolds with expressive richness the full depth of these emotions, here enhanced by the warm, amber timbre of Stéphanie d’Oustrac.

New Year’s Concert: Mahler “Titan”

Sat, 09 Jan 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets

Metz

The Awakening of the Titan

Sun, 10 Jan 2027 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €19

Liège

[Maestro] Me, I’m Gustav—Gustav Mahler. I am a conductor at the Budapest Opera, and one day I will be in Vienna: two prestigious musical capitals! I will even conduct my own music one day at the Salle Philharmonique in Liège… I am also a composer. I love drawing inspiration from the sounds of nature and village life. Everything fascinates me: shaping the infinite colors offered by musicians, imagining the inclusion of folk dances, gypsy songs, birdsong, or even Frère Jacques as a funeral march! I also know how to move from the faintest sound to the most dazzling heights… My First Symphony will be called “Titan.” It will open up a new world. My power as a composer will carry you into the future, just before stepping into the 20th century. Who will follow me on this adventure? Recommended age: 9 and up

Beethoven, Eroica

Fri, 15 Jan 2027 17:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €36

Liège

There is a before and an after Beethoven’s Eroica. With this visionary symphony, Ludwig van Beethoven profoundly reshapes the course of music history, creating a work of unprecedented dramatic force, driven by a bold sense of heroism that paves the way for the Romantic movement. Under the direction of Elena Schwarz, the musicians of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège will reveal its full power, tension, and poetry. At the end of the concert, the audience will have the opportunity to meet the Swiss-Australian conductor, originally trained as a cellist, former assistant to Gustavo Dudamel in Los Angeles, Associate Conductor of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and Conductor-in-Residence at the Klangforum Wien from 2024 to 2026.

Beethoven, Eroica

Sat, 16 Jan 2027 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €48

Liège

Composed in 2012, the extraordinary Absolute Jest by John Adams, for string quartet and orchestra, draws on half a dozen fragments by Ludwig van Beethoven—notably from his late string quartets—and propels them into an incandescent rhythmic flow, combining exuberant virtuosity, wit, and raw energy. Written between 1803 and 1804, the Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” emerges at the dawn of Romanticism as a groundbreaking work. Initially dedicated to Bonaparte, it soon frees itself from the figure of the triumphant hero. Ludwig van Beethoven shatters the framework of classical form, unfolding a music of tension, trial, and transcendence, in which the symphony becomes the stage for a gripping inner struggle of unprecedented scope.

A Cello in Italy

Sun, 17 Jan 2027 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €19 – €24

Liège

From Antonio Vivaldi to Giovanni Sollima, three centuries of Italian music echo one another, with the radiant and virtuosic cello of Anastasia Kobekina as a narrator through time. Vivaldi blends brilliance with a festive spirit, much like Sollima’s Concerto perduto (“lost concerto”), in which, in 2021, he imagined a new work based on fragments of a cello concerto by the “Red Priest,” carefully preserved in Venice. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Charles Avison extend, in their own way, the virtuosity, clarity of form, and expressive freedom of the Italian Baroque, while opening the path toward the more sensitive language of the Galant style.

Dobrawa Czocher

Sat, 23 Jan 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €26

Liège

Between classical music and minimalism, Dobrawa Czocher shapes an intimate and cinematic trio-based music, at the boundaries of contemporary aesthetics.

Anna Vinnitskaya

Sun, 24 Jan 2027 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €36

Liège

“Virtuosity is just as evident as it is essential. And, above all, here it has the elegance of making itself forgotten, hidden behind poetry and passion.” RTBF Since winning the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2007, Anna Vinnitskaya has been performing around the world, while regularly returning to Liège. Her recital opens with Claude Debussy’s Two Arabesques, brilliant and already highly personal works by the composer, and gives pride of place to Romanticism, with Frédéric Chopin’s Third Sonata, radiant with life and energy, the twilight-like Intermezzi Op. 117 by Johannes Brahms, a deeply moving musical testament, and the Variations on a Theme of Corelli by Sergei Rachmaninoff, the most accomplished of his major works.

Mozart, Concerto No. 20

Thu, 11 Feb 2027 17:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €39

Liège

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 opens with immediate drama: a minor key, incisive accents, and relentless tension give the work an almost theatrical intensity. Former laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, Alexander Melnikov brings out its full power and poignant lyricism. As for Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7 (1924), composed at the end of his life, it unfolds in a single continuous movement, where a solitary melody is transformed and developed with an intensity that is both mysterious and profoundly human. It is up to Karel Deseure to sculpt its hypnotic landscapes with luminous precision.

Mozart, Concerto No. 20

Fri, 12 Feb 2027 18:15:00 GMT

Tickets

Bruxelles

Mozart and the enchanted piano

Sun, 14 Feb 2027 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €19

Liège

[Maestro] What if a piano could tell stories? In this narrated concert, meet Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a mischievous musical genius! You will discover excerpts from Les petits riens, music full of energy and surprises, followed by the famous Piano Concerto No. 20, where the piano dialogues with the orchestra like in a magical adventure. Listen, imagine, and let yourself be carried away on an enchanting musical journey! Recommended age: from 9 years

The piano at the heart of the strings

Tue, 16 Feb 2027 10:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €0

Liège

Four members of the OPRL join Portuguese pianist Joana David to explore the rich universe of the piano and string quintet. The program opens with Fauré’s Quintet No. 1, a work composed at a pivotal moment in his life, as deafness led him toward a more inward and deeply poetic sound world. Next comes Taneyev’s Quintet, a vast, lyrical and energetic fresco, with dense and demanding writing, often (admiringly) compared to Brahms’s Quintet, a masterpiece of balance and expressive power that will conclude the concert.

Enigma

Wed, 17 Feb 2027 16:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €0

Liège

What if music concealed secret messages? Letters turned into notes, numbers hidden in rhythms, mysterious structures… some composers embedded real enigmas in their works. With Pierre Solot and the OPRL, set off in search of codes and invisible signatures, where every sound can become a clue. A concert like a musical treasure hunt, where the ear becomes a detective and silence an accomplice.

Enigma

Thu, 18 Feb 2027 16:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €0

Liège

Shostakovich, Concerto No. 1

Fri, 26 Feb 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €51

Liège

Written between 1947 and 1948 under the weight of the Stalinist regime, Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 unfolds an extreme tension and striking darkness. Behind formidable virtuosity, carried by the OPRL concertmaster George Tudorache, the violin becomes an inner voice: biting irony and fierce lyricism follow one another up to an implacably intense final passacaglia. With his Symphony No. 1, Brahms confronts the overwhelming shadow of Beethoven. Far from imitating him, he extends his vital momentum and expressive power, forging a work of struggle and transcendence, driven by a dark energy and raw emotion.

Journey to Lübeck

Sat, 27 Feb 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €19 – €24

Liège

In 1704, in the middle of winter, Johann Sebastian Bach undertakes a 400-kilometre walk to the Hanseatic city of Lübeck in order to meet the renowned organist and composer Dietrich Buxtehude. The journey begins in Arnstadt, the birthplace of Johann Michael Bach (1648–1694) and Johann Christoph Bach (1642–1703). By placing Christ lag in Todesbanden by Johann Sebastian Bach alongside works by composers of the previous generation, the programme seeks to contextualise his music and highlight its roots and development.

Shostakovich, Concerto No. 1

Mon, 01 Mar 2027 18:15:00 GMT

Tickets

Turnhout

Steve Reich, The desert music

Thu, 04 Mar 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €51

Liège

Characteristic of the American school through its accessibility, raw energy, rich colours and urban rhythms, Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto (2005) finds in Evelyn Glennie a performer internationally acclaimed for her refined approach to timbre and her stage presence. In contrast, The Desert Music (1983), a cantata for choir and orchestra by Steve Reich, a major figure of minimalism, draws on texts by American poet William Carlos Williams to evoke arid landscapes, the tensions of the modern world, and the struggle for survival after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A hypnotic work, where loops and pulses shape a powerful sonic meditation, here performed by the Brussels Philharmonic.

Mozart and his Legacy

Sat, 13 Mar 2027 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €48

Liège

For its debut in Liège, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta unfolds its chamber colours around Mozart and his musical legacy. Written in 1779, his Sinfonia Concertante gives the viola, for the first time, a true solo role, placed on equal footing with the violin. It will feature the young violinist Daniel Lozakovich, one of today’s leading talents at Deutsche Grammophon. As for Tchaikovsky’s sumptuous Serenade for Strings, it was born as an homage to Mozart, whom the Russian composer regarded as the embodiment of musical purity and balance. Finally, 5 minutes in the life of W.A.M. offers an unusual and humorous fantasy based on various recycled Mozart motifs.

Schubert, The Unfinished

Fri, 19 Mar 2027 17:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €39

Liège

Composed in 1822 and forgotten for nearly 40 years before being fortuitously rediscovered among a friend of Schubert, Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished” is limited to two movements, bathed in a continuous flow of shadowy melodies. Between darkness and light, brilliance and melancholy, it reflects a period of emerging depression in its composer, likely at the origin of its incompletion. Dvořák’s Cello Concerto No. 2, written in 1895 during his stay in the United States, unfolds a vast fresco in which nostalgia, homesickness, and the soloist’s inner song permeate the entire orchestra. Two works marked by incompleteness, where music becomes confession.

Schubert, The Unfinished (Additional performance)

Sat, 20 Mar 2027 17:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €39

Liège

The Newcomers

Tue, 23 Mar 2027 10:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €0

Liège

Each year, the orchestra continues a fine tradition: welcoming its new musicians with a concert dedicated to them. On this occasion, they are invited to share the stage with their colleagues in a chamber music concert, placed under the sign of encounter and the joy of making music together. This special moment is an opportunity to get to know one another, both among themselves and with the audience. The programme, specially devised for this concert, highlights the richness of personalities and talents of the new generation, and promises delightful musical discoveries.

OPRL+ Symphonic cinema: Loss, The Planets

Fri, 26 Mar 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €34

Liège

After The Firebird, Mahler: The Echo of Being and Daphnis and Chloé, director Lucas van Woerkum turns to Holst’s The Planets, a grand galactic epic reflecting the composer’s fascination with space and astrology, with his new project: Loss. For this new film, whose tempi are perfectly synchronised with the playing of the OPRL musicians, the filmmaker has imagined a story that reopens the great questions of humanity. Performed by Emma Thompson and Greg Wise, Loss immerses us in the inner journey of a soul bidding farewell to earthly life and being accompanied in its transition to the afterlife. The narrative explores loss both from the perspective of those who remain and of the one who departs. The mystery of life after death is rendered in the sumptuous, meticulously crafted aesthetic typical of the Dutch artist.

OPRL+ Symphonic cinema: Loss, The Planets

Sat, 27 Mar 2027 17:00:00 GMT

Tickets

Namur

Kirill Gerstein

Sun, 04 Apr 2027 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €36

Liège

“The pianist Kirill Gerstein is a true phenomenon… He presents himself as a genuine artist, a poet of sound who knows how to enchant his audience.” DER TAGESSPIEGEL Trained in both the United States and Europe, pianist Kirill Gerstein is one of today’s most prolific and captivating performers. He presents several masterpieces of Romantic piano repertoire: Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses, heir to Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations; Schumann’s deeply moving Fantasy Op. 17, composed during his sudden separation from Clara; Liszt’s transcription of Wagner’s Isolde’s Love-Death; and finally Liszt’s unique and monumental Sonata, dedicated to Schumann, who in turn had offered Liszt his Fantasy Op. 17.

Merlin the Enchanter

Fri, 09 Apr 2027 16:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €16 – €18

Liège

Knight apprentices of the Round Table, follow Merlin, Arthur, and Viviane! A magical musical epic directed by Bernard Cogniaux.

Merlin the Enchanter

Fri, 09 Apr 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €16 – €18

Liège

Knight apprentices of the Round Table, follow Merlin, Arthur, and Viviane! A magical musical epic directed by Bernard Cogniaux.

Merlin the Enchanter

Sat, 10 Apr 2027 09:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €16 – €18

Bruxelles

Apprentice knights of the Round Table, follow Merlin, Arthur and Viviane! A magical musical epic staged by Bernard Cogniaux.

Merlin the Enchanter

Sat, 10 Apr 2027 12:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €16 – €18

Bruxelles

Apprentice knights of the Round Table, follow Merlin, Arthur and Viviane! A magical musical epic staged by Bernard Cogniaux.

Feel the Beat

Wed, 14 Apr 2027 16:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €0

Liège

No one will ask you to get up… and yet everything here speaks of dance. Long before club dancefloors, classical music already made bodies vibrate through rhythm, pulse and repetition. Regular beats, insistent motifs, obstinate bass lines: movement is hidden within the notes. Pierre Solot invites you to feel this invisible “beat”, where music becomes pure energy, even without a single dance step.

Feel the beat

Thu, 15 Apr 2027 16:30:00 GMT

Tickets: €0

Liège

OPRL+ Soundtrack: The Strange Concert of Mr. Elfman

Fri, 23 Apr 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €34

Liège

The OPRL dives into the world of Danny Elfman, with music written for Tim Burton and the Belgian premiere of his trumpet concerto.

Rachmaninoff, Concerto n° 2

Wed, 28 Apr 2027 17:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €36

Liège

Often regarded as the king of piano concertos, Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto unfolds a rare emotional tension, oscillating between tragic darkness and incandescent lyricism. A regular guest of the OPRL, Nelson Goerner will take command of the work, bringing a deeply considered pianistic approach in which sound density and structural clarity prevail over immediate virtuoso display. At the end of the concert, the artist will join Lionel Bringuier and the audience, with the participation of Guy Lemaire, to discuss his artistic journey, the history of the score, its formidable technical challenges, and the interpretative choices that have shaped his reading of the work.

Rachmaninoff, Concerto No. 2

Thu, 29 Apr 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets

Namur

A long-time artistic partner of the orchestra—he was involved with it in selecting the Steinway of the Salle Philharmonique in Hamburg—the Argentine pianist Nelson Goerner returns to the OPRL in Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto, a burning work in which virtuosity serves a broad, radiant and deeply Russian lyricism. Originally conceived for dance before becoming a symphonic fresco, Florent Schmitt’s La tragédie de Salomé (1912) combines the decadent legacy of Symbolism, the orchestral refinement of Debussy, and a rhythmic energy that anticipates the foundations of modernism, one year before The Rite of Spring. Its orientalising atmospheres are sumptuous, and Salome emerges as the sonic embodiment of desire and fate, magnificently expressed in every orchestral tension.

Rachmaninoff, Concerto No. 2

Fri, 30 Apr 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €55

Liège

Symphonie fantastique

Thu, 20 May 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €55

Liège

Composed in 1868, Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2 plays with forms and styles: a Bach-like opening, a scherzo of distinctly Parisian elegance, and a dazzling final rush in the spirit of Offenbach. A spirit of clarity and irony ideally suited to pianist Simon Trpčeski. In contrast, Lionel Bringuier conducts Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, a Romantic manifesto from 1830 that transforms the orchestra into a theatre of obsessive love, pastoral reverie, military fury, and ultimately a hallucinatory, phantasmagorical finale.

European Tour: Symphonie fantastique

Sun, 23 May 2027 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets

Wroclaw

Daphnis and Chloe

Sat, 29 May 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €51

Liège

A historic partner and emblematic ensemble of the prestigious Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier, with which it has been closely associated since its creation, the Orchestre Opéra National de Montpellier makes its debut in Liège. Its programme celebrates the French tradition through a symphonic poem by Camille Pépin inspired by an ancient Chinese tale, but also ancient Greece as reimagined by Ravel, alongside the 80th birthday of American composer John Adams in a thrilling suite drawn from his opera Doctor Atomic (2005), inspired by the tense hours preceding the famous Trinity nuclear test in 1945. A musical electrical storm…

The Sacred Music of Mendelssohn

Sun, 30 May 2027 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €22

Liège

A skilful organist and excellent improviser, in the lineage of Bach and Handel whom he so deeply admired, Mendelssohn devoted a significant part of his output to sacred music. The Namur Chamber Choir explores fourteen of his motets, with organ or a cappella, pages that alternate between delicacy and strength, carried by a sincere and profound faith. Organ professor at the Luxembourg Conservatory and titular organist of the monumental instrument of Saint Martin’s Church in Dudelange, Alessandro Urbano accompanies the choir and also performs two solo organ works.

European Tour: Symphonie fantastique

Tue, 01 Jun 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets

Ostrava

Yulianna Avdeeva

Sun, 06 Jun 2027 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €12 – €36

Liège

“A colourful, shifting performance that never weighs down or drags. A lesson in grand style.” DIAPASON Trained in Moscow and Zurich, Yulianna Avdeeva became the first woman (since Martha Argerich in 1965) to win the Warsaw Chopin Competition in 2010. Her recital opens with Bach and Beethoven, works of an eminently improvisatory and tormented character, extended by the tempestuous nature of the “Appassionata” Sonata. The second half, devoted to Ravel’s genius, leads from the tender and melancholic Pavane for a Dead Princess to the tectonic upheavals of La Valse, via the delightfully cheeky Valses nobles et sentimentales.

Fête de la musique 2027: Classic Academy

Sat, 19 Jun 2027 14:00:00 GMT

Tickets: €0

Liège

The 10th edition of El Sistema Liège confirms the noble ambition of this remarkable initiative: to give children from underprivileged areas the opportunity to learn and practise music collectively throughout the year, and to perform in concert with OPRL musicians at the Salle Philharmonique. The project promotes intensive musical practice, both within and outside school, in support of educational, social and artistic goals. Entirely free of charge, El Sistema Liège is supported by the City of Liège, the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles and private partners, and forms part of El Sistema Belgium, led by ReMuA and its dedicated teaching musicians.

Beethoven, the “Emperor”

Thu, 15 Jul 2027 18:00:00 GMT

Tickets

Amsterdam

The OPRL opens its doors on Boulevard Piercot for a free day combining music, interactive discoveries, and delicious treats. Not to be missed!