Beethoven's Legacy

Few contemporary composers embody the symphonic tradition as fully as Belgian composer Luc Brewaeys. He began writing his Eighth Symphony in 2004, but the work remained unfinished at the time of his death in 2015. Inspired by another iconic “Eighth” — Beethoven’s — Brewaeys envisioned his own as a true “orgy of sound,” in his own words. True to his style, the orchestration is lush, imaginative, and delightfully unconventional… bottles included! His close collaborator and former student Annelies Van Parys took on the challenge of completing the symphony’s final movement, drawing inspiration from Brewaeys’ sketches and his distinctive musical style. Composed in 1812, Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony is often regarded as the most playful of his symphonies. More concise in scale, it sparkles with energy, wit, and rhythmic inventiveness, blending mischievous nods to Classical tradition with boldly modern gestures. One striking example is Beethoven’s humorous and almost absurd effect created by layering an elegant, graceful melody over the metronomic “tick-tock” of the woodwinds. Yet beneath this apparent lightness lies a work of remarkable craftsmanship, in which Beethoven toys with form and listener expectations, asserting a joyful and liberated creative spirit. The two “Eighths” — Beethoven’s and Brewaeys’ — are preceded by Jonathan Harvey’s 80 Breaths for Tokyo, a meditative piece inspired by Zen breathing practice: a moment of quiet stillness before the symphonic storm.