The successful Entartete Musik Festival comes back to Mechelen from 21 to 24 March 2024. Thanks to Kazerne Dossin and city festival Construct Europe, and with the warm support of Klara radio, Mechelen will be the stage for four days of poignant banned musical testimonies – from Nazi Germany but also from stalinist Russia.
Music by Prokofiev, Wellesz, Ben-Haim, Gal, Shostakovich, Weinberg will be performed by top ensembles and soloists such as Oxalys and the Mechelen Chamber Orchestra. With a special spot for Valentin Silvestrov, perhaps the best-known contemporary Ukrainian composer.
Moreover, this second edition of Entartete Musik also presents a special book, illustrated by Koen Broucke, in which various authors and experts deal with this delicate matter in different ways.
Opening concert 21 March:
The lost sons of modernism – Oxalys and Koen Broucke on piano
Brilliant but less well-known chamber music (ballet quintet opus 39 and the overture on Hebrew themes) by Prokofiev is confronted with Egon Wellesz’s nonet. In his youth, Wellesz belonged, along with Anton Webern and Alban Berg, to Arnold Schoenberg’s intimate student circle. Wellezz is undoubtedly one of the greatest modernists of interbellum Vienna, a reputation that was shattered by the rising national socialism and forced him to rebuild his life in England. The Oxalys ensemble is once again the thread running through this festival and the perfect interpreter of this magnificent repertoire. Last but not least, Koen Broucke, visual artist and pianist, performs four intimate piano works by Ukraine’s most famous contemporary composer Valentin Silvestrov.
