“The finale is incredibly complex,” the composer explains, “and I lost a lot of time in January, catching up with the third movement after six years – I started over six times!” Brewaeys should be finished with the final movement by the 30 March premiere, but when rehearsals started, the score still had about 10,000 notes to go.

Brewaeys (pictured) was born in Mortsel, Antwerp province, in 1959, and the premiere of his eighth symphony is part of the celebration of his half-centenary. He studied in Brussels, in Siena and in Darmstadt; in Paris, he worked with Iannis Xenakis, a pioneer of electronic music. Brewaeys himself composes at the computer.

Eight symphonies puts him up there with Beethoven, Mahler and Schubert. His works usually have titles such as Cheers!, In Between or Mozart’s Ghosts, but not the symphonies, which are labelled ever so correctly: Symphony No 1, etc.

Does a Brewaeys symphony exist on the imaginary continuum stretching from Haydn to Beethoven to Bruckner? “I put myself more into the symphonic tradition of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & Mahler – to name only the ‘big ones’,” he replies. “The symphony is par excellence the most abstract genre in music. On the other hand, I generally use titles to make recognition of the works easier for listeners, and sometimes these titles also give a clue to the musical content, though my music isn't at all programmatic. Even in my opera, my first aim was always to compose a good piece of music, regardless of the meaning of the text. I strongly believe, like Stravinsky, that music mainly expresses itself.”

Brewaeys, I find, has a reputation for being difficult. Perhaps it’s the fact that he turned down a nomination for this year’s Culture Prize of the Flemish Community in music. Brewaeys argued that it would be a better idea to create a climate in which young talent could thrive rather than to reward those left standing after a lifetime of struggle.

He doesn’t actually seem to be the scratchy character of reputation at all, confirmed by Ludwig Van Mechelen, editor of the influential website and newsletter Klassiek- Centraal.be. Brewaeys is a sort of emeritus editor.

“I know Luc as a great guy who wears his heart on his sleeve,” says Van Mechelen. “He’s unusually capable, overactive, open to whatever’s good for music, full of talent, language, science, committed, funny and honest. If Luc’s in the company, the company is alive.”

The Eighth Symphony by Luc Brewaeys will be performed at Bozar on 30 March by the Belgian National Orchestra, conducted by Pascal Rophé. Also on the programme: L’arbre des songes (concerto for violin and orchestra) by Henri Dutilleux, with Akiko Suwanai on violin; and The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky.

30 March, 20.00
Bozar
Ravensteinstraat 23
Brussels
www.bozar.be