The Seasons – April: Year-long Tchaikovsky series bridging music, poetry and visual art

Contemporary multimedia arts project The Seasons marks the month of April with a Tchaikovsky piano performance, original poem and new illustration.

Belgian concert pianist Marie François is the creative spirit behind this artistic experience that celebrates the seasons throughout 2026. It commemorates the 150th anniversary of Tchaikovsky’s 12 piano pieces that were originally performed throughout 1876.

This new version features the composer’s works, performed by François, alongside 12 new poems by four writers and 12 illustrations by Juliane Noll. The Dutch-language poems by Lize Spit, Max Temmerman, Ester Naomi Perquin and Joke van Leeuwen are spoken by Koen De Bouw and have been translated into English by David Colmer.

The poems and illustrations are published each month in Flemish daily De Standaard, The Bulletin and on radio NPO4 in the Netherlands. A link at the end of this article provides access to the musical recordings.

Read an interview with Marie François here.

12 months, 12 pieces of music, 12 poems

Note on Leaving (April)

Last night you slept so deep it scared me. A hulking kind

of lying still I couldn’t bear, heavy and shameless. 

Light tingled through my fingers. 

So I got up. I washed and dried the glasses, restocked 

the wine, deleted texts on your phone, 

wiped my imprint from your skin.  

See me as a layer of paint, extremely thin, even shadow

can paint over it. We had it wrong and even 

if you wake up soon, lusty and restless,

with a wild, expansive look – too late.  

Convergence is an act of taking root. Now I need to be 

glancing light on scrap wood, plastic-bag nests 

in the canal, empty bottles, gently rinsing 

winter-hardy plants, cradling underground. 

Your motionless last night – it’s not for me. 

The streets I have to walk until the desolation 

ends, the beds, the rustling shrubs, 

dance steps off the doorstep, crazies 

singing under your window, 

so much to turn, awaken, cover.  

Ester Naomi Perquin

Translated by David Colmer

Listen to this month's audio recording here

Illustration photo: ©Bernard Rosenberg