Soloists were none others than Raymond Curfs (principal timpanist at the Bayerischer Rundfunk Munich) and Luk Artois (principal timpanist at the Orchestra of La Monnaie, Brussels).

Samuel BARBER - Essay for Orchestra (1938)

Philip GLASS - Concerto Fantasy for two Timpanists and Orchestra (2000)

Igor STRAVINSKY - The Firebird, Suite from the Ballet (1910, version 1945)

The program is built around the "Concerto Fantasy for two Timpanists and Orchestra ', the central work of the opening concert of the International Belgian Percussion Festival, with Curfs and Artois as soloists. This piece by Philip Glass is surrounded by works of two American composers that have been of great influence in his music, although in very different ways. The concept is based on a full American program with clear links to the old Europe.

When Samuel Barber attended a performance of his 1st symphony in 1937 in Salzburg, the conductor Arturo Toscanini asked him to write a new work for the NBC Symphony Orchestra in his American homeland. This commission resulted in the first Essay for Orchestra one year later.

The Firebird was created in Paris in 1910. The long, revised version from 1945, which contains parts of the original ballet, dates from the time when Stravinsky lived in America. In the same Paris Philip Glass studied with the renowned Nadia Boulanger, who had an important influence on his classical education. 

Philip Glass in the company of two of his famous predecessors; the traces of Barbers innovative language and linearity and Stravinsky's pulsating rhythms are clearly noticeable in his music.