Sibelius & Tchaikovsky @ De Doelen

Went to an amazing concert. Although the performers were not very famous, the way they played was great.
The conductor, Ludovic Morlot, was a short and modest man, and he conducted without a baton, but what impressed me most, was that he also conducted the orchestra without a score… He knew all of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony by heart!
The violinist, Valery Sokolov, was a young guy from Ukraine, who similar to the conductor, played without bravura, but quite skilful yet calm. Hardly seemed tired at all at the end, although Sibelius’ concerto is quite demanding.
We sat at row Pf, which is De Doelen code for “6th row”; so quite near the front. And unlike the Concertgebouw, in De Doelen you don’t have to look up a meter when you’re close to the stage.

Before the concert we had dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant with the suitable name “Pavarotti”

Oh, and 45 minutes before the concert started, we attended an introduction, by an old lady, who had a voice with resembling the Polygoon Journaal from the 1950s But she gave some interesting background info on the composers and the works we were going to hear.

Hélène Grimaud @ Anton-PhilipsZaal

On Tuesday, I got my revenge for the failed attempt 2.5 years ago to see my favorite pianist Hélène Grimaud in concert, at the Anton Philipszaal in Den Haag (and at a ridiculously low price, with the NS 2-for-1 promotion).

She played Rachmaninov’s second concerto; before that, the orchestra played a romantic work by the unknown Dutch composer Jan van Gilse, and after the interval, they played Tchaikovsky’s 5th symphony. Although it’s not really the most daring repertoire, the whole concert was very enjoyable to listen to. BTW, 70-year old Neeme Järvi was still vividly swinging and dancing.

And although I never take illegal pictures at classical concerts, for belle Hélène I made an exception to the rule.
The only small disappointment was that she didn’t have a session to sign her CDs, but oh well.. Can’t have everything…

And the most surprising thing of the evening, was that they started the concert with the national anthem… We had completely forgotten that it was a special day for the royal family: Prinsjesdag…

Excellent Easter Monday

Can you think of a better way to spend Easter Monday (which over here is a holiday) than by going a music festival, where all tickets are only €5? (heavily sponsored)

So this morning I took the 9.57 tram which leaves in front of my house, and stops right outside the Anton Philipszaal / Lucent Danstheater, where the festival was held. My friend reserved tickets for the Master Class given by Dmitri Bashkirov, and since they were only €5, I thought it would be 1 or 1.5 hours. Turns out they scheduled 3.5 hours for it! 3 students get approx. 1 hour each

A few funny things about this program:
1) before the classes, there was a bilingual girl (Russian & Dutch) to interview him with Russian questions. The maestro replied… in German!
2) for the actual classes, there was another bilingual girl (German & Dutch) who was supposed to translate everything from German to Dutch. But the audience apparently all understood German, and so did the student, so she didn’t really get anything to do. After a while she was given a chair to just sit beside the two persons and pianos
3) the maestro was extremely enthusiastic (and knowledgeable, obviously), gesticulating wildly (but not exaggerated) and humming while the student played. As the student got further into the piece, the comments became more and more stern, and he got interrupted more and more. We really felt sorry for him / her. But in the end the maestro hugged and praised the student saying he played well, was talented, etc. etc.

But since the session would be that long, and we saw another nice concert on the program, we decided to go there as well: from 12:45 to 13:30: the 2nd prizewinner of last year’s Oscar Back violin competition would play 1 sonata by Beethoven and one by Carl Nielsen. His performance was quite impressive indeed, maybe also because he looked so young: when he came on stage, I thought he was 12 years old, but reading the biography revealed he was 19 or 20! After this concert we returned to the last 30 minutes of the master class…
Although there was 1 more concert after that, this would be a very long one (the Barber of Seville opera), so we skipped that one.

Instead we moved to the Momiji sushi bar, where we had tea and some nice snacks (various kinds of Yakitori, and deep-fried chicken with cheese (!))

My laziness was completed by going into the Eazie wok bar, where I got some food to take away: chicken with black bean sauce and fried rice. For the 2nd time they gave me boiled rice instead of fried rice, but oh well… It still saves me the hassle of cooking myself on this very nice holiday.

Hough @ De Doelen

The concert where my idol Hélène Grimaud had been replaced by Stephen Hough turned out quite alright. On the program was Brahms’s 2nd piano concerto, a magnificent work of almost 50 minutes, and (the contrast could not be greater) 4 waltzes by Johan Strauss. Unlike some celebrities who get sloppy, Mr. Hough performed the concerto quite well, although I was initially surprised by his large “gestures”. In general, I admire those pianists most, who play technically challenging works with minimal visible effort. But styles differ. The conductor, Mark Wigglesworth, was also a joy to look at, and as far as I could hear, he led the orchestra in a very convincing manner.
After the interval, the atmosphere was very relaxed, and many people who are serious about classical music somehow look down on the often abused and popularized Strauss waltzes. Apparently, the conductor was so familiar with these pieces (or they were so easy), that he often skipped turning the page, and then after a few minutes, he would turn 3 or 4 pages at once!
I didn’t have very high expectations about the musical depth, but was nevertheless pleasantly surprised by some “deep” fragments which didn’t sound very familiar. They seemed longer versions than the ones on my Dad’s LPs that would always be played, while I was crawling on the ground playing with Lego or car toys

Schubert’s Winterreise @ Concertgebouw

Tuesday night was spent at the Valhalla of classical music, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.This concert was definitely an example of the slogan “The best things in life are free”, since I was given this free ticket by my friend’s singing teacher, on my birthday (although I doubt she knew that).
Anyway, it was a performance of Schubert’s Winterreise, by two musicians that I had never heard of before, and I think, neither had most of the audience: the bariton Roman Trekel, accompanied by pianist Irwin Gage. But the performance was AWESOME. Powerful, precise, and full of emotion. Very impressive.

The only 2 notable events were
1) They forgot one song, “Letzte Hoffunung”
2) Near the end, a phone went off in the audience. AAAARGH… Even though it was at a low volume, it was of course audible. Luckily the musicians were not noticably disturbed, and continued playing as if nothing had happened. The audience was shocked and people were heard saying “Jesus”…

But since the audience was clapping so enthusiastically afterwards, and giving a standing ovation (although this gesture seems to have undergone inflation, lately), they came back for an encore, which was… the song they had forgotten

Van Zweden & Stadtfeld @ A.Philips

Gee… has it been almost 2 whole years since I was last in the Anton Philipszaal concert hall in Den Haag? On Sunday I went there with a friend whom I’ve known since my first year of uni. The Residentieorkest was led by Jaap van Zweden, who officially has resigned there as the chief conductor, but today he was back as a guest conductor. On the program was:
- Weber / Berlioz: l’Invitation à la valse
- Rachmaninov, 3rd piano concerto.
(break)
- Berlioz: some movements from Roméo et Juliette
The pianist perfoming the concerto was the (to me) unknown, but apparently up and coming talent Martin Stadtfeld. Considering he’s only 24, he played the concerto quite well. Even though I got the feeling sometimes that he wanted to play a bit faster than the orchestra, to show off his virtuosity.
After the break, we switched seats, from all the way up on the balcony, to all the way down there, where we almost sat down initially, because we hadn’t read the tickets properly: we only saw ROW 8, just not downstairs, but up there. Way too far. And they had promised to give “the best availabe seats”. False marketing promises! Well, the seats down there were still empty, and much better. I always love watching the musicians’ faces and smallest details in their movements, in addition to the of course the conductor…

Van Zweden & Stadtfeld @ A.Philips

Gee… has it been almost 2 whole years since I was last in the Anton Philipszaal concert hall in Den Haag? On Sunday I went there with a friend whom I’ve known since my first year of uni. The Residentieorkest was led by Jaap van Zweden, who officially has resigned there as the chief conductor, but today he was back as a guest conductor. On the program was:
- Weber / Berlioz: l’Invitation à la valse
- Rachmaninov, 3rd piano concerto.
(break)
- Berlioz: some movements from Roméo et Juliette
The pianist perfoming the concerto was the (to me) unknown, but apparently up and coming talent Martin Stadtfeld. Considering he’s only 24, he played the concerto quite well. Even though I got the feeling sometimes that he wanted to play a bit faster than the orchestra, to show off his virtuosity.
After the break, we switched seats, from all the way up on the balcony, to all the way down there, where we almost sat down initially, because we hadn’t read the tickets properly: we only saw ROW 8, just not downstairs, but up there. Way too far. And they had promised to give “the best availabe seats”. False marketing promises! Well, the seats down there were still empty, and much better. I always love watching the musicians’ faces and smallest details in their movements, in addition to the of course the conductor…

Van Zweden & Stadtfeld @ A.Philips

Gee… has it been almost 2 whole years since I was last in the Anton Philipszaal concert hall in Den Haag? On Sunday I went there with a friend whom I’ve known since my first year of uni. The Residentieorkest was led by Jaap van Zweden, who officially has resigned there as the chief conductor, but today he was back as a guest conductor. On the program was:
- Weber / Berlioz: l’Invitation à la valse
- Rachmaninov, 3rd piano concerto.
(break)
- Berlioz: some movements from Roméo et Juliette
The pianist perfoming the concerto was the (to me) unknown, but apparently up and coming talent Martin Stadtfeld. Considering he’s only 24, he played the concerto quite well. Even though I got the feeling sometimes that he wanted to play a bit faster than the orchestra, to show off his virtuosity.
After the break, we switched seats, from all the way up on the balcony, to all the way down there, where we almost sat down initially, because we hadn’t read the tickets properly: we only saw ROW 8, just not downstairs, but up there. Way too far. And they had promised to give “the best availabe seats”. False marketing promises! Well, the seats down there were still empty, and much better. I always love watching the musicians’ faces and smallest details in their movements, in addition to the of course the conductor…

Lisa Ekdahl Crying

Jag gråter för dig och för mig,
för allt vi sa var vårt
jag gråter för dig, för mig,
för att inget är självklart och mycket svårt

jag gråter över det fina,
det enkla och allt som var rent
jag gråter för nu är allt skitigt
och kanske också för sent

(Lisa Ekdahl, Kunde jag vrida tiden tillbaka)

Falco

Song / mood of the day:

Jeanny, quit living on dreams
Jeanny, life is not what it seems
Such a lonely little girl
In a cold cold world
There’s someone who needs you…

(Falco: Jeanny)

P.S. If you’ve never heard the song: Jeanny is pronounced like Genie