Grote Woorden #2

Grote Woorden (Great Words) is an international series of several years on the First World War, organised by deBuren and poet and professor Geert Buelens, author of Europa Europa!, a magnum opus on the First World War and European cultural history. Talks alternate with literary readings and classical music.

In this second session, held at the Kaaitheater, Geert Buelens speaks to the German historian Philipp Blom (The Vertigo Years, Europe 1900-1914 and Die Zerrissenen Jahre 1918-1938) and gives brief lectures on First World War poets. The actress Femke Stallaert recites war poems from the collection Het lijf in slijk geplant. The musical element is provided by the pianist Thomas Dieltjens and cellist Martijn Vink. They will perform two compositions by Frank Bridge: Lament for Catherine (a piano piece written for a nine-year-old girl who died on the passenger liner Lusitania that was torpedoed in 1915) and the first part of his Sonato for Cello and Piano, in which he expressed his despair concerning the war.