BEETHOVEN27: Courage and heroism

Le Concert Olympique is a forty-five-piece European orchestra under the direction of conductor Jan Caeyers. The cornerstones of the repertoire are the well-known and lesser-known works of Beethoven and his contemporaries, such as Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn. The musicians come from and are active throughout Europe and share the ambition to perform at the highest level.
The fact that the orchestra performs within the framework of clearly defined projects ensures the necessary focus on stage, behind the scenes and in the concert hall.

Beethoven's work is at the heart of the Le Concert Olympique program. In his groundbreaking book “Beethoven, a life”, Beethoven expert and conductor Jan Caeyers portrays Beethoven as a recognized genius who was able to strike a perfect balance between reason and emotion, power and control.
For the musicians of Le Concert Olympique, Beethoven is an example of always giving their best and striving for excellence.

Beethoven is not only interesting because of his music. He symbolizes the importance of crossing borders and transforming crises into a positive motivator. Le Concert Olympique consciously invests in research, innovation, education and an intercultural vision of “classical music”. To create contemporary music inspired by Beethoven's legacy, Le Concept Olympique collaborates with modern composers such as Jeroen D'hoe and Jens Joneleit.

The theme of the Ninth Symphony is “All men become brothers”. Beethoven unites people through the universal language of music and invites them to work for a better world. Le Concert Olympique shares this message with the general public. Beethoven connoisseurs will recognize a profound and refreshing interpretation of the masterpieces in these concerts. Listeners with less affinity for classical music will discover the unique orchestral sound and feel the enormous energy on stage.

The name of the orchestra refers to “Le Concert de la Société Olympique”, the most important concert organization in Paris between 1782 and 1789. This organization caused a sensation in 1785 when it commissioned six symphonies from Joseph Haydn. These Parisian symphonies marked the birth of the modern classical symphony.
Le Concert de la Société Olympique was founded in the Palais-Royal - the birthplace of the progressive, pre-revolutionary and social movement in France. The organization wanted to secure a place for itself vis-à-vis the past and the establishment. This spirit of innovation and room for modernity form the basic philosophy of the orchestra: “the old” does not exclude “the new”.

The Belgian conductor and musicologist Jan Caeyers is one of the most important Beethoven specialists in Europe. He lived, studied and worked in Vienna for many years. From 1993 to 1997 he was Claudio Abbado's assistant at the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, where he also worked closely with Bernard Haitink and Pierre Boulez. In October 2010 he made his debut at the deSingel in Antwerp with a new Beethoven orchestra he founded: Le Concert Olympique. With this orchestra he has performed in the most important concert halls in Europe, including the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Musikverein and the Konzerthaus in Vienna and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He has also been a guest conductor with various orchestras, choirs and opera houses in Europe.
Until 2003, Jan Caeyers directed and conducted the Beethoven Academy as Artist in Residence at deSingel in Antwerp, the international art campus of Flanders (Belgium). With the Beethoven Academy, Jan Caeyers performed in the major concert halls of Europe: the Musikverein in Vienna, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Auditorio Nazional in Madrid, etc. He worked as a freelance conductor at the Opera in Stuttgart, with orchestras in Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Florence and Prague and with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic in Belgium. He has also conducted leading European choral ensembles such as the Arnold Schönberg Choir in Vienna and the Nederlands Kamerkoor.

Since Kit Armstrong burst onto the international music scene twenty years ago, his activities have held an enduring fascination for music lovers. Today he continues to work as a pianist, composer and organist. As a soloist he performs in major international concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Musikverein, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and the Suntory Hall Tokyo. He also performs with some of the world's finest orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the
Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

A passionate chamber musician, Armstrong has close artistic partnerships with other leading instrumental and vocal artists. The entire Mozart sonatas for piano and violin with Renaud Capuçon have already been performed at the Salzburg Mozart Week and in the Berlin Boulez Hall. Armstrong has given recitals with Benjamin Appl, Julian Prégardien and others. Recent European tours with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Academy for Early Music Berlin, one of the world's leading early music ensembles, are an expression of a long-standing collaboration. As an organist, Armstrong has performed in the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Philharmonie de Luxembourg, Weiwuying in Kaohsiung and in cathedrals throughout Europe, among others.

Ilya Gringolts impresses with his highly virtuoso playing and subtle interpretations and is always looking for new musical challenges. As a sought-after soloist, in addition to the large orchestral repertoire, he also devotes himself to rarely performed and contemporary works; Ilya Gringolts is also interested in historical performance practice. The virtuoso early repertoire of Locatelli and Leclair as well as Paganini's solo works and orchestral concertos adorn his concert programs. He launched new works by Peter Maxwell Davies, Augusta Read Thomas, Christophe Bertrand, Bernhard Lang, Beat Furrer and Michael Jarrell. In 2020, Ilya Gringolts and Ilan Volkov founded the I&I Foundation to promote contemporary music, which awards commissions to young composers.
Ilya Gringolts started the 2023/24 season with an extensive tour of Australia and New Zealand. Further invitations have taken him to the Hungarian National Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala and the Brussels Philharmonic, among others. In historically informed performances, he presents concerts by Mendelssohn with La Scintilla and by Sibelius with the Finnish Baroque Orchestra; He also premieres new violin concertos by Lotta Wennäkoski, Chaya Czernowin, Boris Filanovsky and Mirela Ivicevic.

"Poltéra [...] knows how to make his instrument sing. [...] The focus is on his direct, golden glowing tone and his smooth flow of playing. The impression is always of a silken band of gracefully articulated tones."
As one of the most impressive cellists of his generation, Poltéra's playing focuses solely on the music: he shows the essence of a work without any grand gestures. His very individual timbre shapes his interpretations, which he knows how to masterfully adapt to the era and style.

The Swiss Christian Poltéra decided to play the cello at a young age. He began his studies with Nancy Chumachenco and then continued with Boris Pergamenschikov and Heinrich Schiff in Salzburg and Vienna. In 2004 he was awarded the Borletti-Buitoni Award and named BBC New Generation Artist. As a rising star, he was able to present himself to audiences in all major European concert halls in the season two years later. Invitations from renowned orchestras take him all over the world. He has made guest appearances with, among others, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Los Angeles and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Orchester de Paris, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orkest and the Seoul Philharmonic. His conducting partners included Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Bernard Haitink, John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Paavo Järvi and Andris Nelsons.