In the room devoted to the works of artist Margot, Virgile Van Essche’s fortepiano. On this astonishing-sounding instrument, witness to a pre-industrial era, the Brussel-based pianist resonates a piece whose sonorities leave the listener bewildered. Beethoven wrote his “Tempest” sonata in a century when the natural elements fascinated human beings, without them seeking to bend nature to their personal needs. The authenticity of the fortepiano’s sound reveals unexpected expressive nuances, and creates a contrast with the place and space in which we live today.
A moment in which we entrust our ears to the music, suspend our eyes to the bewitching constructions of the visual artist, and abandon our dreams to the movements of nature.
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Virgile Van Essche is a Belgian pianist, accompanist and choral conductor. Trained at Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory, London Royal Academy of Music and Brussels Royal Conservatory, he is now based in Brussels.
His activities are shared between international collaborative projects with singers and instrumentalists and work in opera and playing on historical instruments: romantic piano, fortepiano. A keen lover of languages, Virgile knows French, Russian, English and is proficient in German, Italian, Spanish and Dutch.