Julien Libeer celebrates Bachs Wohltemperierte Klavier

Wohltemperierte Klavier

Julien Libeer: 'Bach's Wohltemperierte Klavier is perhaps the most influential composition in the history of Western music. Conceived as a stylistic encyclopaedia, keyboard method and implicit pamphlet in favor of tonality, it has been a permanent object of study and veneration for all composers from Mozart to Ravel, from Brahms to Shostakovich. And a source of inspiration for contemporary composers with different aesthetic backgrounds.'

The earliest musical memory of the Belgian Julien Libeer is the famous documentary about the recording of West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein. From the age of six, the piano has been his most faithful companion. He follows intensive lessons with the French-Polish pedagogue Jean Fassina at the Queen Elizabeth Music Chapel in Brussels (to which he is also an associate artist), as well as with the world-famous Portuguese master pianist Maria João Pires, with whom he regularly performs as a duo. Julien studies at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and in Paris and is the winner of the Diapason d'Or, the Klara Award and the Echo Klassik Award.

Julien Libeer is a welcome guest on the international stages from Madrid to Tokyo, but he also initiates many projects based on the idea that the power of music brings about social change. For example, he presents a Belgian TV series in which he tells musical stories and he is the artistic director of the Singing Molenbeek project. In it he accompanies choir rehearsals at primary schools in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek with the hope that getting to know music will help the students to grow personally and socially.

Program

JS Bach - Prelude & Fugue in C major

L. van Beethoven - Bagatelle WoO 52 in C minor

JS Bach - Prelude & Fugue in C sharp major

F. Chopin - Mazurka Op.50 nr.3 in C sharp minor

JS Bach - Prelude & Fugue in D major

S. Rachmaninoff - Prelude op.23 nr.3 in D minor

JS Bach - Prelude & Fugue in E flat major

G. Fauré - Prelude op.103 nr.6 in E-flat minor

JS Bach - Prelude & Fugue in E major

M. Ravel - Fugue in E minor (from: Le Tombeau de Couperin)

JS Bach - Prelude & Fugue in F major

WA Mozart - Fantasy for a Mechanical Organ K.608

JS Bach - Prelude & Fugue in F# major

J. Brahms - Capriccio Op.76 nr.1 in F sharp minor

JS Bach - Prelude & Fugue in G major

D. Shostakovich - Prelude Op.34 No.22 in G minor

JS Bach - Prelude & Fugue in A flat major

F. Busoni - Prelude op.37 nr.12 in G sharp minor

JS Bach - Prelude & Fugue in A major

G. Ligeti - Musica Ricercata I on A

JS Bach - Prelude & Fugue in B flat major

M. Reger - Two-part canon op.19 in B-flat minor

JS Bach - Prelude & Fugue in B major

A. Schönberg - 6 Klavierstücke op.19

About the Bosendorfer Series

The Bösendorfer Series is a series of intimate piano recitals in De Waalse Kerk, in which nine top pianists shine behind the beautiful Bösendorfer Imperial Grand grand piano. This season we also welcome Daria van den Bercken (Jun 15). More information about season '23-'24 of the Bösendorfer Series can be found on our website towards the end of season '22-'23.