music

Respighi’s Pini di Roma

Sander Zwiep — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:00:00 +0000

Live at the Concertgebouw: '...The renowned American conductor David Zinman will be guiding the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra through some very inspiring pages of classical music today, like Ottorino Respighi’s inimitable depiction of Roman Pinetrees, the songcycle Les Nuits d’été, summernights by Hector Berlioz, soloist is the Swiss-Dutch mezzo-soprano Maria Riccarda Wesseling.

Rich in Brass

Sander Zwiep — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:00:00 +0000

Live at the Concertgebouw: '…Ces concerts, riches de cuivre, these concerts rich in brass sounds, a poetic title for an extremely poetic and intuitive contemporary piece that recently was written by the Dutch composer Bart Visman. This exquisite new orchestral score combines wonderfully well with the music of that other Dutch composer who, a generation ago, was perennially in love with French music: Rudolf Escher. Not to mention the two French composers on today’s program…' [RNW-host Hans Haffmans]

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part 2

Heaven's Life

Sander Zwiep — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:00:00 +0000

Live at the Concertgebouw: '...This week in Live at the Concertgebouw : Gustav Mahler’s symphony number four, nicknamed ‘Das Himmlische Leben – Heaven’s Life. It is a work with a unique purity, lightness and transparency. The enchanting slay bells take us to his inner child, to his dreams of angels, fairy tales, angst and pure, divine love. This child-like symphony needed a different orchestra: no dark tuba, no heavy trombones, no large arsenal of massive brass.

Dramatic Love Story

Sander Zwiep — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:00:00 +0000

Live at the Concertgebouw: '...The dance of the Knights from Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo & Juliet. Today live at the Concertgebouw conductor Jaap van Zweden will present his selection of dances, depicting the two feuding families, the breathtaking Juliet and ultimately the unhappy ending of this love story. A dramatic story told today by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. There’s another Russian composer on the program, Peter Tchaikovsky, whowas a source of inspiration for the young Prokofiev.

Adventurous Orchestral Manoeuvres

Sander Zwiep — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:00:00 +0000

Live at the Concertgebouw: '...This symphony in three movements by Igor Stravinsky will be the concluding masterpiece of a concert given by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at the main hall of the Concertgebouw. The concert is part of the RCO’s longstanding series with adventurous music that is renowned among the world’s top orchestras. It is the vintage A series, A standing for adventurous.

Two Child Prodigies

Sander Zwiep — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:16:32 +0000

Live at the Concertgebouw: ‘…Felix Mendelssohn is accompanied by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart today. It is a most natural choice to hear these two composers in one concert, although the two never met. Mendelssohn was born some twenty years after Mozart’s death, but there are striking similarities between these two child prodigies. Both were gifted with an compositional ease that is unique in the history of music and both had a sense of balance in their music that is nothing short of astonishing.

Hymn to the Night

Sander Zwiep — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:35:32 +0000

Live at the Concertgebouw: "...The late romantic Dutch composer Alphons Diepenbrock was one of the first artists to compose a ‘symphonic poem’ for voice and orchestra. Diepenbrock was trained as a classicist but as a composer he was a self-made man. Diepenbrock was a much admired composer, not only by the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s conductor Willem Mengelberg, but also by his friend Gustav Mahler.

Mahler's Ninth

Sander Zwiep — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:23:32 +0000

Live at the Concertgebouw: "...Every generation needs and desires its own Mahler. At least that is the case in Holland. The Concertgebouw has always been a Mahler sanctuary starting in the days when the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler conducted his own symphonies in Amsterdam. That took place in the early years of the twentieth century. After Mahler’s death in 1911 the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s conductor Willem Mengelberg continued championing Mahler’s symphonies and organized the world’s very first Mahler festival in 1920..."

Field trip along musical roots

Sander Zwiep — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:17:52 +0000

Live at the Concertgebouw: "...The passionately fired up final movement of Bela Bartok’s Music for strings, percussion and celesta. It was a groundbreaking work composed in the 1930s. Trailblazing, modern, new and yet, in this masterpiece Bartok was in search of his roots. Today Bela Bartok’s Music is the spectacular scenic view ending a fieldtrip where along the way also two contemporary composers are taking us back to their roots : the Scotsman James MacMillan and the Israeli composer Betty Olivero...."

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Mozart's Musical Wonders

Sander Zwiep — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:33:36 +0000

Live at the Concertgebouw: "...The Overture to Mozart’s opera Le Nozze di Figaro. It is one of the wonders of Mozart’s mature years. The approximately 30 year old composer delivered one masterwork after the other in every imaginable genre: opera, symphony, chamber music. Hello and a warm welcome to you live at the Concertgebouw, brought to you by RNW. I’m Hans Haffmans. The Swedish soprano Miah Persson will appear on stage in about half an hour for a number of Mozart arias, among these one from le Nozze di Figaro..."

part 1