29.01.26, 20:00, Ryelandt Ensemble, Ryelandt, Sjostakovitsj & Dams

The Ryelandt Trio, known for their recordings of Flemish music, expands to a quintet for the occasion, joined by violinist Linde Verjans and violist Séamus Hickey. This Ryelandt Ensemble pairs music by Sjostakovitsj with that of — how could it be otherwise — Joseph Ryelandt.

Although Joseph Ryelandt (1870–1965) and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) lived in largely overlapping historical periods, the two composers could hardly have been more different. Ryelandt, a French-speaking aristocrat from Bruges, wrote music that never sounds dissonant in any way, whereas Sjostakovitsj’s work contains a grimness closely tied to the constant threat of persecution in Stalin’s Communist Russia. Ryelandt’s lyrical melodies thus form a welcome counterbalance to the urgency that speaks from every note of Sjostakovitsj.