ENSOR ON THE BEACH

Solo Piano Recital

Ensor on the Beach explores the musical universe of Belgian painter-composer James Ensor in dialogue with the refined irony of Erik Satie, culminating in the radical sonic language of Helmut Lachenmann.

In La Gamme d’Amour (1907), originally conceived as a ballet-pantomime for harmonium, Ensor reveals a sound world that mirrors his visual imagination: masks, irony, tenderness and subtle critique of bourgeois conventions. Written almost entirely on the black keys, the work unfolds in a distinctive pentatonic landscape. A sequence of short theatrical tableaux — flirtation, lament, mock-solemn marches and mechanical dances — creates a dramaturgy of apparent simplicity that reveals emotional depth and wit.

In dialogue with Ensor, selected piano works by Erik Satie highlight a similar spirit of quiet rebellion. Far from stereotypical melancholy, these works reveal Satie’s sharp humour, rhythmic clarity and deliberate play with musical conventions.

The programme culminates in Helmut Lachenmann’s Marche fatale — a work in which the piano itself becomes a field of tension. Here, sound is exposed as raw material, and the historical spirit of artistic dissent is carried into the present through radical timbral exploration.

Together, Ensor, Satie and Lachenmann form a lineage of artistic independence — clarity, irony and resistance across more than a century of musical thought.

Duration: approx. 60 minutes
Performer:
Veronique Vanhoucke – piano

PROGRAMME

James Ensor (1860–1949)
La Gamme d’Amour — complete cycle (± 28’)

Erik Satie (1866–1925)
Selected works (± 20’)

Helmut Lachenmann (1935– )
Marche fatale