It’s gratifying to find a new music festival on one’s doorstep, so I make special mention today of Festival 20/21, which runs from 24th September to 25th October in the Flemish city of Leuven (just a few short trainstops from Brussels).
The festival is split into two parts. Festival 20/21 itself concentrates on more established composers from the twentieth century to the present day. Highlights include an evening of Penderecki premieres on 4th October; George Crumb’s visceral Black Angels quartet on 10th; Eric Satie’s La mort de Socrate paired with John Cage’s Cheap Imitation III, which is derived from Satie’s work, on 22nd; and Éclairs sur l’Au-Delà and Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum by Olivier Messiaen on 25th.
Transit (12th–14th October) is a festival within a festival concentrating on newer works and younger composers. The classics of the future. Given its 11 events take place over one weekend it makes for an especially enticing event for those prepared to make the pilgrimage—you will get to hear a lot of new music in a short space of time.
Highlight include premieres from Jasper Vanpaemel, Liesa Van der Aa, Bryn Harrison, James Saunders, Tim Mariën, Patricia Alessandrini, Alexander Chernyshkov, Lisa Streich, Michael Finnissy, Georgia Nicolaou, Frederik Neyrinck and Stefan Van Eycken. There will also be a chance to hear James Dillon’s Tanz/haus : tryptich, which was co-commisioned with Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and was a huge success there in 2017. There will also be two armchair discussion on the theme of ‘democracy’ in new music with musicologist Robert Adlington.
I spoke to one of the festival’s artistic directors, Maarten Beirens, just a few days ago about the event. Look out for that interview in the next few days.