Notes: Henderickx & Eroica

A friendship in music

In December 2022, the Belgian music world was left dejected after the sudden death of Wim Henderickx. He earned his spurs as a composer of numerous orchestral and chamber music works, and his compositions for music theatre were also acclaimed internationally. Moreover, Henderickx was a figurehead not only as a composer, but also as a pedagogue and percussionist, an example for numerous students and fellow musicians.

When Henderickx died, a number of almost finished compositions lay on his work table. Music that was not supposed to just disappear. Diederik Glorieux, his musical right-hand man for almost two decades, was given the special task of preparing the works for playing. Among those many sketches was a concept for a timpani concerto, intended for percussionist and good friend Gert François and the Brussels Philharmonic. From those outlines and in close consultation with François and Bea Steylaerts, Henderickx's widow, Glorieux completed the composition into the work that lies on the pupiter today, entirely in the spirit of Wim.

No better work to flank the premiere of the Timpani Concerto than Beethoven's powerful Third Symphony, a work Henderickx admired and from which he drew lasting inspiration.