Penser. Aimer. Chanter.
“Les cygnes, quand ils sentent qu’ils vont mourir, chantent encore mieux...”
(Swans sing even more beautifully when they sense that they are about to die...)
—from Mort de Socrate (Phédon)
Soprano Katrien Baerts presents the programme Penser. Aimer. Chanter., featuring French art songs by Lili Boulanger, Claude Debussy, Henri Duparc, Francis Poulenc and Erik Satie.
Penser. Aimer. Chanter. explores a paradox: that the deepest emotion sometimes emerges only when it is held back.
In the first half of the evening, songs by Poulenc, Debussy, Lili Boulanger and Duparc are performed together with pianist Cynthia Liem. These mélodies explore the many facets of love and longing — at times playful, at times wistful, at times tenderly ironic. Voice and piano move as equal partners in dialogue. Together they shape the emotion, colour the text and reveal hidden depths. The music is at once expressive and lyrical, occasionally unrestrained, drawing the listener into a world of intimacy, reflection and feeling.
After the interval, the programme turns inward with Portrait de Socrate by Erik Satie, performed with pianist Gerard Bouwhuis. Here the overt emotion of the first half recedes: no drama, no outbursts. Satie leaves only the essence of attention and presence. The music follows Socrates in his contemplation, his calm questioning and his quiet perseverance. What remains is a still intensity — emotion not in gesture, but in listening and in attentiveness to the moment. In this way, Portrait de Socrate forms a hushed counterbalance to the earlier outspoken passion and brings the evening to a contemplative close.
Photos by Claudia Hansen & Lisanne Soeterbroek
Member concert
Splendor can only be the independent and free hub that it is, thanks to the members who support us. We pay them back with our specialty: music. Every year, all Splendor musicians play one concert that's free for this crucial group to whom Splendor owes its everyday existence. Combined with many other events, this means that our members have free entrance to over 50 concerts a year for €9,99 p/m (and €4,99 p/m for minima and students!) – and receive a discount for all other concerts. Pretty good deal, right?
The members enable Splendor to remain independent, which is the only way to secure real freedom in programming, experimentation, risk-taking and the promotion of young, upcoming artists. If you can think of another place without a central programming, where last-minute concerts can be planned any moment, where there is no backstage and artists and audience are constantly mingling and hanging out at the bar, where mysterious creative outbursts can be presented that are often labeled 'too risky' elsewhere, and that still guarantees high quality by unleashing the best of The Netherlands' music scene in this creative playground – you get a free membership!
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