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Happening 2025: Minimal music

In the middle of the concert season, Antwerp Symphony presents a Seasonal Happening in which central themes such as the flow of time, and the tension between life and survival, are further deepened. Theoretical physicist Thomas Hertog, who in close collaboration with Stephen Hawking published his controversial theory on the origins of time, meanders through these themes in dialogue with exciting symphonic music.

Music often creates a spatial impression, but is in fact nothing more than time made audible. And if one thing can be said of time, it is that it is constantly, indeed mercilessly, ticking by. And yet music sometimes raises questions about our linear understanding of time. Precisely because music takes place in time, it possesses the unique ability to manipulate our sense of time. Musical minimalists like Terry Riley, Philip Glass and John Adams understood this well. The obsessive repetition of the same musical motif over and over again paradoxically creates a sense of stasis in their music. The Seasonal Happening deepens this musical idea, linking it to a universal yet burningly topical theme around the limits of human knowledge.

Zaterdag 22.02.2025
Koningin Elisabethzaal, Antwerpen

18:15
SYMPOSIUM: DE WEERKLANK VAN MINIMAL MUSIC

Cultuurfilosofe Marlies De Munck en musicoloog Maarten Beirens gaan in gesprek met moderator Eva Van Daele over minimal music.

 

19:15 - 20:00
PAUZE MET SLAGWERKPERFORMANCE

Steve Reich (1936)
Clapping music (1972)

Steve Reich (1936)
Mallet Quartet, deel 1 en 2 (2009)

 

20:00
AVONDCONCERT MET LEZING (DEEL 1):
Thomas Hertog & John Adams’ Doctor Atomic Symphony

Thomas Hertog
Lezing “Dag zonder Gisteren”
gesproken taal: Nederlands

John Adams
Doctor Atomic Symphony

Door het Antwerp Symphony Orchestra en dirigent Brad Lubman

 

ca. 20:40
PAUZE MET SLAGWERKPERFORMANCE

Arvo Pärt (1935)
Spiegel im Spiegel, voor cello en percussie (1978)

 

ca. 21:00
AVONDCONCERT MET LEZING (DEEL 2):
Thomas Hertog & Philip Glass’ Icarus at the Edge of Time

Thomas Hertog
Lezing “Het ontstaan van de Tijd”
gesproken taal: Nederlands

Philip Glass
Icarus at the Edge of Time 
gesproken taal: Engels

Door het Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, dirigent Brad Lubman, verteller Michaël Pas en acrobaten van The CIRCollectors, met lichtontwerp van Antoine Goldschmidt en regie van Robin Witt

22:15 - 23:15
PAUZE MET SLAGWERKPERFORMANCE

Nigel Westlake (1958)
Omphalo Centric Lecture (1984)

Philip Glass (1937)
Amazon River en Madeira River (uit: Aguas da Amazonia) (1993)

John Cage (1912-1992)
Dream (1948)

John Cage (1912-1992)
Third construction (1941)

 

23:15
MIDDERNACHTCONCERT:
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Recomposed by Max Richter

Door het Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, violiste Elena Urioste en met lichtontwerp van Antoine Goldschmidt

 

 

Tickets

  • Introductory symposium: The resonance of minimal music

    Sat 22.02.2025 – 18:15
    In the midst of the concert season, Antwerp Symphony presents a Season Event where central themes such as the flow of time and the tension between life and survival are further explored.
    Queen Elisabeth Hall, Antwerpen
    Okapi
    Sat 22.02.25
    18:15
    Tickets

  • Seasonal happening: Evening concert with readings

    Brad Lubman, Thomas Hertog, Michaël Pas, Robin Witt, The CIRCollectors, Antoine Goldschmidt
    Antwerp Symphony Orchestra
    Sat 22.02.2025 – 20:00
    In the middle of the concert season, Antwerp Symphony presents a Seasonal Happening in which central themes such as the flow of time, and the tension between life and survival, are further deepened.
    Queen Elisabeth Hall, Antwerpen
    Sat 22.02.25
    20:00
    Tickets

  • Midnight Concert: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Recomposed by Max Richter

    Elena Urioste, Antoine Goldschmidt
    Antwerp Symphony Orchestra
    Sat 22.02.2025 – 23:15
    With his fresh interpretation of Vivaldi's baroque masterpiece, Richter demonstrates how the interpretation of music has nothing to fear from the passage of time.
    Queen Elisabeth Hall, Antwerpen
    Sat 22.02.25
    23:15
    Sold out