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.