Dominique Horwitz
sings Jacques Brel
Many French people adore the Belgian Jacques Brel, who wrote over 600 songs in his short but eventful life. His songs are dramatic stories, touching, stirring and often of the same simple unequivocal emotionality as an old ballad. Amsterdam, Ne me quitte pas, L'amour est mort – with bitter wistfulness and biting humour, he turned life's major dramas into immortal chansons. His music is a world of its own and inseparably associated with the absolute abandon with which the singer performed it on stage.
Dominique Horwitz is not merely an outstanding musical interpreter of chansons; as an actor, he adds a second, dramatic dimension to his performance, thereby establishing a clear, expository distance. He makes some of the characters appear grotesque, with the freedom of an interpreter who is not only a singer but also a brilliant performer in the sense of his actual profession. On stage, Dominique Horwitz is very close to Brel and sings and plays the songs as if they were his own – yet he never becomes a copy of Brel, but always remains completely himself, something that only the great interpreters manage successfully. Dominique Horwitz is looking forward to performing the Brel evening with his long-standing musical partner Andres Reukauf on the piano.
