ROMANTISCHE LIEBESLIEDER

Romantische Liebeslieder

The second concert of Lassenne Vocale’s 10th Anniversary Concert Series invites us into the many faces of love — from the excitement of new affection and the intensity of desire to longing, uncertainty, and the quieter reflections that come with it.

The programme begins with Beethoven’s Birthday Cantata for Prince Lobkowitz, WoO 106, a work chosen with a glance towards 2027, Beethoven’s anniversary year, which makes his music a natural part of our own anniversary celebrations. We then turn to Fanny Hensel’s Neue Liebe, neues Leben, in an arrangement by Denis Rouger. Set to Goethe’s famous poem, the piece captures the restless and almost bewildering feeling of discovering a new love.

This same literary thread leads into the centrepiece of the programme: Brahms’s Neue Liebeslieder. Inspired by poems from a variety of sources, these vocal quartets explore love from many perspectives — playful, passionate, tender, and sometimes bittersweet. The cycle closes with a setting of Goethe, creating a subtle connection between Hensel and Brahms and bringing the programme full circle.

Lassenne Vocale is accompanied by Duo Hælix — Marion Maurel and Sophie Vindrios.

Date: 10 April 2027
Place: The Faculty. Rue des Vétérinaires 47, 1070 Anderlecht
Time: 8pm

henry purcell’s dido & Æneas

Our tenth anniversary year comes to its culmination with Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, one of the most enduring works of the English Baroque and a masterpiece of musical storytelling.

First performed in the late seventeenth century, Dido and Aeneas tells the tragic story of Dido, Queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, the Trojan prince whose destiny calls him away from her. In little more than an hour, Purcell creates a remarkably concentrated drama of love, duty, deception and loss. The work moves effortlessly between intimate moments of tenderness, lively dances, comic and supernatural episodes, and some of the most poignant music of the Baroque.

At the heart of the opera is Dido’s final lament, When I am laid in earth. Its descending bass line and expressive vocal writing have become among the most recognisable sounds of the Baroque repertoire. Yet the emotional power of the opera lies not only in this famous scene: throughout the work, Purcell’s extraordinary sensitivity to the English language and his ability to shape music around the drama give every character and moment a distinctive voice.

For Lassenne Vocale, this performance marks the Grand Finale of our 10th Anniversary Concert Series. Over the course of this anniversary year, we have explored different facets of choral music, bringing together music from different periods, places and traditions. With Dido and Aeneas, we close the series by returning to one of the great works of the choral and theatrical repertoire—a work in which voices, instruments and drama come together as one.

Ten years after Lassenne Vocale was founded, it is particularly meaningful to celebrate this milestone through music that continues to speak so directly across centuries. We are delighted to share this final chapter of our anniversary year with you.

Target date: October 2027 (tba)
Place: (tba)
Time: (tba)

confluence – where voices meet

Two choirs, two musical identities, and a shared fascination with the many shades of the human voice.

In this collaboration, Lassenne Vocale and Chœur Kosmopolis bring together a richly varied programme spanning languages, cultures, and musical traditions. From the sacred intimacy of Pau Casals’s O vos omnes, Ola Gjeilo’s Ubi Caritas, and Jevgeņijs Ustinskovs’s Stabat Mater to the luminous colours of Eric Whitacre’s Lux aurumque and Pēteris Vasks’s Māte Saule, Lassenne Vocale’s programme moves between contemplation, mystery, nature, and light.

Chœur Kosmopolis responds with its own musical journey across Europe and beyond: Catalan, French, Spanish, Hungarian, Slovenian, Finnish, and English voices meet in works by Josep Ollé i Sabaté, Francis Poulenc, Carlos Guastavino, Maurice Ravel, Zoltán Kodály, Andrej Makor, Charles Villiers Stanford, and Jussi Chydenius. Birds return as a recurring image, from El cant dels ocells and Ravel’s Trois beaux oiseaux du paradis to Stanford’s The Blue Bird, while the programme also explores the quiet worlds of evening and night.

Date: 13 December 2026
Place: Église Notre-Dame du Sacré Cœur
Rue de Tervaete 24. 1040 Etterbeek
8pm