For this Piknik concert, two young musicians from the German-speaking Community join forces. Cellist Noah Schmitz, winner of the Ostbelgien Festival’s OBF Next Generation in 2025, teams up with pianist Rafaël Theissen to explore two sides of Romanticism. In his Variations concertantes, Felix Mendelssohn takes a light-footed theme through increasingly capricious and virtuosic variations, building towards an outburst of Romantic fervour. Rachmaninoff sets that fire alight from the very first note of his Cello Sonata in G minor, with lyrical cello melodies set against a passionate piano part that continually pushes the boundaries of its accompanying role. It is up to Schmitz and Theissen to strike a balance between the lyrical expressiveness and exuberant virtuosity of their instruments.

Flagey, Ostbelgien