Vocal and Piano Recital

Sunday, September 13, 2026, at 4:00 PM

Danaé Matuz-Echaiz, mezzo-soprano

Magali Natalizio, pianist

This recital spotlights the immense and multifaceted talents of Pauline Viardot (1821–1910), who was simultaneously an adored prima donna, a visionary composer, a virtuoso pianist, and the inspiring muse to the greatest creative minds of her era—from George Sand to Turgenev, Chopin, and Fauré.

The story of this musical dynasty, the Garcia family, resonates deeply in Brussels.

Pauline Viardot’s older sister, the celebrated diva Maria Malibran, lived in Ixelles.

Together with the love of her life, the violinist Charles-Auguste de Bériot, she commissioned a grand, beautiful residence—today the Ixelles Town Hall—and now rests in a magnificent mausoleum at the Laeken Cemetery.

This intimate concert revives the free and vibrant spirit of the musical salon Pauline Viardot hosted just outside Paris, presented through her own art songs alongside works from her artistic inner circle.

 

WHO WAS PAULINE VIARDOT?

While the Brussels audience is well acquainted with the legendary Maria Malibran (1808-1836) — whose mausoleumoverlooks the Laeken Cemetery and whose former residence in Ixelles became the Town Hall —, it is often forgotten that her younger sister, Pauline Viardot (1821-1910), was one of the most towering musical geniuses of the 19th century.

A piano student of Franz Liszt and a singer endowed with a phenomenal range of over three octaves, Pauline Viardot was far more than an incomparable interpreter of Rossini, Gluck, or Meyerbeer: she was the beating heart of European artistic life.

A free spirit, polyglot, close friend, and muse of George Sand, she transcribed Frédéric Chopin’s mazurkas with his blessing, inspired Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, and shared four decades of life and intellectual communion with Ivan Turgenev. Yet Pauline was also an inventive and refined composer, whose art songs rival the finest in wit, emotional depth, and daring.

It is precisely all the enchantment of her salon — where voice, piano, and the finest poetry entered into boundless dialogue — that we invite you to rediscover this afternoon, Sunday, September 13, 2026, at Le Salon Bugrane

 

Program

 

1. Au jardin de mon père Pauline Viardot

2. La Bayadère Maria Malibran

3. Yo que soy contrabandista Manuel García (father)

4. La Chapelle (citation) Pauline Viardot

5. Consolation No. 1 (solo piano) Franz Liszt

6. Les Filles de Cadix Pauline Viardot

7. Assisa a piè d’un salice (Otello) Gioachino Rossini

8. Laissez-vous toucher par mes pleurs Christoph Willibald Gluck / H. Berlioz

9. Nièt tolko tot, kto znal dedicated to P. Viardot Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

10. Bonjour mon cœur Pauline Viardot

11. La Chanson du pêcheur dedicated to P. Viardot Gabriel Fauré

12. Morgen steh’ ich auf und frage dedicated to P. Viardot Robert Schumann

13. Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix dedicated to P. Viardot Camille Saint-Saëns

 

A R T I S T  B I O G R A P H I E S
The Performers

Danaé Matuz-Echaiz, mezzo-soprano 

Trained at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Cergy-Pontoise in Jean-François Rouchon’s class, Danaé Matuz-Echaiz subsequently entered the classes of Christine Solhosse, Céline Vieslet, and Laure Delcampe at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where she obtained Master’s degrees in Classical Singing and Music Pedagogy.

Concurrently, she attended masterclasses with renowned artists including David Selig, Marilena Laurenza, Teresa Berganza, and Zeger Vandersteene.

Drawn to diverse repertoires and configurations, she performs as a soloist with orchestra across opera and oratorio repertoire, and passionately cultivates chamber music in duos with piano as well as with guitar.

A former member of the Chœur National des Jeunes de France, she is an active contributor to Brussels musical life with the Ensemble vocal Swara, the Schola of Notre-Dame du Sablon, the Ensemble Voces Desupers at St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, and the vocal ensemble of La Cambre Abbey. At the Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie, she joined the Choral Academy and took part in major productions conducted by Hartmut Haenchen, Franck Ollu, Evelino Pidò, and Alain Altinoglu.

Danaé Matuz-Echaiz is currently Professor of Singing at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Rouen.

Magali Natalizio, pianist

Professor of Artistic Education at the Conservatoire Arthur Honegger in Le Havre and the Conservatoire de Sotteville-
lès-Rouen, Magali Natalizio leads a versatile concert career. Her engagements see her perform with orchestra (notably in Mozart concertos and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy), in solo recitals, chamber ensembles, and alongside vocalists.

Curious about varied artistic aesthetics, she regularly collaborates with jazz musicians (as a member of the ensembles So Loops and Chamber Beatles), contemporary dance companies (Doublure à la carte), and puppetry theater (La Boîte à joujoux, 2026).

Grounded in a dual musical and literary background, she actively engages in creating and writing innovative crossover performances combining music and theatrical drama: Rusalka (2018), Mozart ne méritait pas ça (2023), and Le petit monde de Monsieur Satie (2026). She is also dedicated to rediscovering neglected repertoire, such aspiano works by African composers featured during the « Suite africaine » event at the Palais de la Porte Dorée in 2023.

We wish you a wonderful musical journey into the heart of Pauline Viardot’s salon.