Name: Javier Perianes
Start: 2026-01-25T16:00:00
Location: Philharmonic Hall of Liege

Javier Perianes

Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège

Born in Brussels 85 years ago, at the dawn of a conflict that would shake all of humanity, the Jeunesses Musicales have spread across the world, sowing a universal desire: that of music as resistance to arbitrariness and injustice, of music as a space of freedom. This luminous project, which embodies the revolts and hopes of 150 teenagers, supported in their efforts by the OPRL, is proof of this.

Ode to the future

Philharmonic Hall of Liege

Flagey

Palais des Beaux Arts de Charleroi

Grand Manège

A true oud magician, hailed for the purity and delicacy of his playing, Driss El Maloumi has a perfect mastery of traditional Berber music but also draws inspiration from encounters with artists from other worlds, such as Jordi Savall and Ballaké Sissoko. Supported by two percussionists and his sister Karima on vocals, he invites you to distil the spices gleaned from the thousand paths traveled since Agadir, between Arab, Amazigh, Western and sub-Saharan cultures.

Morocco: Driss El Maloumi

For its Christmas concert, the OPRL, under the direction of Austrian conductor Christoph Campestrini, explores some major works by composers inspired by the melancholic beauty of winter. In his Seasons , Glazunov delicately evokes the winter season, with its frost, ice, hail, and of course, snow! Taken from an opera about the life of Ukrainian villagers, Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve suite is adorned with Slavic colors and irresistible picturesque dances. Finally, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1 captures the beauty and intense emotion of a dreamlike journey to the heart of winter and its misty lands.

Christmas Concert: Tchaikovsky, Winter Dreams

[Maestro] A white and thrilling Christmas, that's what OPRL and Adèle Molle offer you to close the year 2025. The story takes place in a Ukrainian village during Christmas night. We follow Vakoula, a young blacksmith in love with Oksana, a beautiful but capricious young girl. To seduce her, he must accomplish a real feat: bring Oksana the Tsarina's shoes. With the help of the devil, whom he manages to capture and force into obedience, Vakoula travels to the imperial court to seize his booty...

A Christmas in the snow

A New Year marked by dance and joy, with The Firebird , a Russian tale commissioned by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Paris, Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos , inspired by Mozart, the gamelan and the spirit of the music hall, and Le tombeau de Couperin , a symphonic gem taken from a piano cycle that Ravel composed in the tradition of French dance suites. And to complete the celebration, the most famous crescendo in the history of music, based on an Andalusian dance with a repetitive and captivating rhythm: the Boléro .

New Year's Concert: Bolero

Cultuurhuis De Warande

Along with Bizet's Carmen , Ravel's Boléro remains the most performed French score in the world! Its crescendo and flamboyant orchestration haven't aged a bit. The same goes for The Firebird , Stravinsky's musical tale that describes the battle between Good and Evil, deploying an enchanting palette of colors. Two gems that Lionel Bringuier will conduct with the OPRL, before sharing his impressions with the audience in a relaxed and accessible atmosphere.

Bolero

Capricious gods, legendary heroes, epic battles: Antiquity has never ceased to fascinate and inspire composers. Why do these ancient stories and legends still resonate today? With his signature passion and humor, Pierre Solot takes you to the heart of this timeless dialogue between ancient myths, captivating melodies, and divine fury. A musical and mythological adventure alongside the OPRL!

Zeus's name!

The Belgian National Orchestra celebrates rhythms and percussion. Gershwin's only opera, Porgy and Bess , distills the essence of jazz and contains timeless tunes like Summertime . With Body Language (2012), Julia Wolfe highlights Colin Currie's physical and musical talent, transforming his body into a veritable instrument to fuse the sounds of urban folk music with those of the orchestra. Andriessen's Tapdance (2013), also written for Currie, magnifies the sound of tap dancing and the memory of big bands. As for Arvo Pärt's Fratres , characteristic of the Estonian composer's ethereal and meditative style, it offers a suspended moment imbued with spirituality.

Porgy & Bess

Twenty years after his participation in the inauguration of the restored great organ of the Philharmonic Hall of Liège, Benoît Mernier, organ professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, brings J.-S. Bach into dialogue with Romantic composers who were inspired by him: Mendelssohn, who was influenced by the rediscovery of the St. Matthew Passion , Brahms, who entrusted his musical testament to the organ in the form of chorales, Widor, who transcribed for organ the finale of this same Passion , and Franck, who wrote a Third Chorale in the form of a tribute to J.-S. Bach.

Bach's Legacy

Although Bruckner placed his symphonic work in the tradition of Beethoven, he could not equal the great Ludwig: his Ninth Symphony remained unfinished, with several incomplete versions of the finale. Aware of his imminent end, he left a majestic score that the extraordinary Marko Letonja, a regular guest of the OPRL, will magnify: a devastating scherzo framed by slow movements that resonate like a final farewell to life. Bruckner's sonic testament... At the end of his life, Richard Strauss composed a final bouquet of vocal pieces, the Four Last Songs, peaceful swan songs tinged with melancholy.

Bruckner 9

UCLouvain

A disciple of Alicia de Larrocha and Daniel Barenboim, the great Spanish pianist Javier Perianes returns to Liège for a program largely dedicated to Spain, at the initiative of EUROPALIA. First, he brings together Falla's early pieces with works by Chopin that seem to have inspired them. Second, he brings together Falla's Four Spanish Pieces , premiered in Paris in 1908, with four excerpts from Albéniz's formidable collection Iberia , an absolute masterpiece of piano literature whose colors and exuberance constitute a formidable homage to his native country.

Brooklyn-based composer (1990) known for her collaborations with prestigious institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum and the National Film Board of Canada, Elori Saxl surrounds herself with a classical trio and enriches her soundscapes at the borders of minimalism and jazz with a new classical dimension. Her albums The Blue of Distance (2021) and Drifts & Surfaces (2024) have received critical acclaim, evoking the gushing minimalism of 1970s Steve Reich, the talent of electronic precursors Matmos, or the dramatic harmonics of Philip Glass's Glassworks . A unique sonic and melodic universe to explore in the "New Classics" series.