Jeroen Berwaerts (Trumpet & Conductor)

Old, New and Spicy

A musical menu rich in contrasts, colours, and characters is served by an artist who effortlessly combines virtuosity with personality: Jeroen Berwaerts. As a soloist conducting the WKO from the trumpet, the Dutch musician leads an evening that shatters epochs and gleefully crosses stylistic boundaries.

"Old" encompasses the baroque elegance of Johann Sebastian Bach's celebrated Goldberg Variations and his trumpet concerto, which is a transcription by the baroque master of a violin concerto by Antonio Vivaldi. Here, Berwaerts' trumpet tone shines with clarity, brilliance, and stylistic awareness.

"New" is Britta Byström's Pischop: a work commissioned by four orchestras for Jeroen Berwaerts. The Swedish composer, herself a trumpeter, crafted the piece so that together with a baroque trumpet concerto and arrangements of Jacques Brel's songs for trumpet and chamber orchestra, it forms a surprising whole.

"Spicy" emerges when Berwaerts interweaves the immortal chansons of Jacques Brel-"Marieke", "Ne me quite pas", and "Amsterdam"-with movements from Rameau's French baroque opera "Dances from Dardanus".