The Flagey building and the Queen Elisabeth Music Contest

On 9 May 2022, the Queen Elisabeth Music Contest starts at the Flagey in Brussels.  Due to a number of cancellations, a total of 66 of the 68 selected candidates will appear in the first round.

In this recital, each cellist will perform a Boccherini sonata with cello accompaniment, the first movement of Ysaÿe's Sonata for solo cello and a modern work with piano accompaniment, chosen by the candidate from Phantasiëstuck by Paul Hindemith, Nocturne by André Jolivet and the first two movements of Pohádka by Leoš Janáček.

The Flagey building 

The Flagey Building, designed by Joseph Diongre after winning a competition launched in 1933, was opened in 1938.  The competition was launched to create a building to house the first national broadcaster in Belgium, the National Institute for Radio Broadcasting (French: Institut National de Radiodiffusion or INR, Dutch: Nationaal Instituut voor de Radio-omroep or NIR) (1930–1960).

Famous architects Henry van de Velde and Victor Horta were member of the jury that awarded the prize to Diongre.

The building owes its name to Eugène Flagey, a Belgian lawyer and politician, who served as mayor of Ixelles from 1935 to 1953. 

It is designed in Streamline Moderne, an international style of Art Deco, also known as style paquebot ("ocean liner style") in France. Owing to its shape somewhat resembling a ship, the building is nicknamed "Packet Boat" or "paquebot".

The interiors included much wood panelling and thin tube lamps, typical of the style.

The building garnered critical acclaim as soon as it was finished, and the qualities of the studios attracted renowned classical, contemporary and jazz musicians to perform there (including Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis,...), for live concerts and recordings.

The INR was later split into separate broadcasting entities, one for each language, the Flemish VRT and French RTBF, before they moved out of the building completely in 1974 (after growing out of it) and leased it to various other cultural bodies until the late 1990s. 

During this time, it was poorly maintained. In 1997, a working group convened to create a feasibility study for a complete renovation of the building.

Established as a public limited company (société anonyme), the consortium Maison de la Radio Flagey (NV Omroepgebouw Flagey) purchased the building from VRT and RTBF on 30 June 1998, with 30 companies working towards saving the building. The building was extensively renovated by architects including Storme Van Ranst, and was reopened in 2002.

On 9 May 2022, Queen Mathilde of the Belgians attended the first session of the Queen Elisabeth Music Contest.

 As a patron of this important cultural contest, she will attend more sessions at the Flagey in Ixelles, Brussels. 

Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians Source picture: Wikipedia

The pictures of the Flagey building were taken in 2015.