Le Lion de Belfort

"Le Lion de Belfort" was written for the official inauguration of the sculpture bearing the same name: This is a huge sandstone lion that shapes the image of the French city of Belfort. The 22 meter long and 11 meter high lion symbolizes the heroic resistance of the French during the Prussian siege of Belfort 1870-1871.

The composer added a narrator and a choir of three voices to the concert band, who present texts written especially for this occasion by Jean Ehret. The premiere of this work took place at the inauguration of the Lion de Belfort on 28 November 2010 - 130 years after the sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904) had finished the statue.