Prokofiev and Stravinsky

de Frumerie and Stravinsky

Bengt Forsberg travels around the world, particularly as a sought-after chamber musician and sensitive interpreter of romantic piano music. He is also a regular guest at the Konserthuset, where he performs with a trio consisting of clarinet, violin, and cello from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.Together, they present fantastic but also unusual music, such as the piano trio by French composer Charlotte Sohy (1887–1955). She lived during the "La belle époque," strongly associated with Paris, where she was born. Her extensive production includes a symphony and several orchestral works, an opera, a lyrical drama, masses, songs, piano pieces, and other chamber music – including this sparkling piano trio.Also rare on the repertoire is the Austrian composer Walter Rabl. He stopped composing in his thirties to focus on conducting and coaching singers – which is regrettable because this attractive piano quartet, reminiscent of Brahms, contains sweeping romanticism and inviting melodies. As a fine contrast, we hear Stravinsky's entertaining Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet.The concert opens with music by Gunnar de Frumerie, who, along with Lars-Erik Larsson and Dag Wirén, is usually described as a neoclassicist. As we can hear in the sonata for cello and piano, he was also a romantic and influenced by the Baroque as well. Emma de Frumerie, from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, who participates as a violinist, is the great-niece of Gunnar de Frumerie.

Elim Chan & Concertgebouw Orchestra: Prokofiev and Mendelssohn

The SummerConcerts powered by VriendenLoterij present two months of wonderful concerts, from classical to jazz and from pop music to film scores. Top musicians from the Netherlands and around the world bring you all your favourite classical pieces, as well as tributes to Leonard Cohen and The Beatles, and all your favourite film music.We also present a host of young talent in our summer concerts, including youth orchestras from South Africa and Turkey, and top young classical soloists. After many of the concerts, we offer a meet-and-greet with the artists in an informal setting, or an afterparty with DJ in the Entrance Hall. In one of the world’s finest concert halls, there’s something for everyone this summer at The Concertgebouw!

Prokofiev Schnittke Mozart

Prokofiev Schnittke Mozart

Jakub Hrůša conducts Beethoven and Stravinsky

»O Beethoven! You are the greatest and best friend of those who suffer, of those who struggle. When the misery of the whole world overpowers us, you move close to us, as you did to a grieving mother, sitting wordlessly at the piano offering comfort to the weeping.« In these words, a contemporary described the effect Beethoven‘s music can have on troubled souls. We play his B-flat major concerto, which earned »the undivided approval of the audience« already in 1795: it has many lively passages – but the heart of the piece is the Adagio, in which an emotional dialogue between solo instrument and orchestra unfolds. We are delighted that the legendary pianist Mitsuko Uchida will once again join us for one of Beethoven‘s famous concertos. Before that, the overture from Cherubini‘s opera »Medea«, first performed in 1797, will be played – a soul drama revolving around a Greek tragedian figure whose ruptured emotional world between love and hate is the main subject. The composition does have lyrical interludes, but is otherwise characterised by unbridled passion. Stravinsky‘s »Le Sacre du printemps« also impressively shows the maelstrom that music can develop and thereby intensively touch the soul: It is a pagan story about the »yearly cycle of forces that are reborn and fall back into the womb of nature« – represented by blessings of the earth, ritual dances and an offering to the gods. At its premiere as a ballet, the composition caused a genuine scandal, but after its first concert performance, the music was quickly recognised for its magic – it captivates with a primal rhythmic power that, according to Stravinsky, »seizes every sensitive spirit«.

Vadim Gluzman plays Prokofiev

»Passion is a state of the soul.« Salvator Dali once said this – and Tchaikovsky can arguably be regarded as the embodiment of this state: He was an emotional man through and through, who often struggled with not being what society expected him to be. Even his nanny called him a »porcelain child«. His states of mind left traces, especially in his most individual symphony, which was premiered in 1893 shortly before his unexpected death. He said he had »put his whole soul into the "Pathétique«: The work outlines different stages of his life with passionate melodies as well as an orgy of bass notes – and concludes with a heartbreaking Adagio. Prokofiev, too, was regularly subject to severe hostility and left his Russian homeland after the October Revolution of 1917 – but was never really pleased with having to live in what he saw as an alien »mental climate«. Shortly before he returned, he wrote the Second Violin Concerto in 1935 during his »nomadic existence«: although it is peppered with sarcastic humour, it follows the great Romantic tradition: one biographer characterised »the almost cliché-like enchanting« gesture of the solo violin in the Andante as »soulfulness« – in which Vadim Gluzman will wallow. A contemporary example of an artist who had to leave his beloved fatherland is the eminent composer Valentin Silvestrov: he fled Ukraine for Berlin. At the beginning of our concert, we will play his »Evening Serenade« from 2002 under the baton of Juraj Valčuha – a very melancholic piece which, thanks to its contemplative limbo, seems like a memory of beautiful and fulfilling hours of times gone by.

Vadim Gluzman plays Prokofiev

»Passion is a state of the soul.« Salvator Dali once said this – and Tchaikovsky can arguably be regarded as the embodiment of this state: He was an emotional man through and through, who often struggled with not being what society expected him to be. Even his nanny called him a »porcelain child«. His states of mind left traces, especially in his most individual symphony, which was premiered in 1893 shortly before his unexpected death. He said he had »put his whole soul into the "Pathétique«: The work outlines different stages of his life with passionate melodies as well as an orgy of bass notes – and concludes with a heartbreaking Adagio. Prokofiev, too, was regularly subject to severe hostility and left his Russian homeland after the October Revolution of 1917 – but was never really pleased with having to live in what he saw as an alien »mental climate«. Shortly before he returned, he wrote the Second Violin Concerto in 1935 during his »nomadic existence«: although it is peppered with sarcastic humour, it follows the great Romantic tradition: one biographer characterised »the almost cliché-like enchanting« gesture of the solo violin in the Andante as »soulfulness« – in which Vadim Gluzman will wallow. A contemporary example of an artist who had to leave his beloved fatherland is the eminent composer Valentin Silvestrov: he fled Ukraine for Berlin. At the beginning of our concert, we will play his »Evening Serenade« from 2002 under the baton of Juraj Valčuha – a very melancholic piece which, thanks to its contemplative limbo, seems like a memory of beautiful and fulfilling hours of times gone by.

Alina Ibragimova plays Prokofiev

In a time of revolution, Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto wove fairytale magic – and no-one makes it dance like Alina Ibragimova.‘Music is life’, declared Carl Nielsen, ‘and like it, inextinguishable!’ Defiant words from a composer who’d seen a world laid waste by war, but they could serve as motto for this concert from the dynamic Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu. In a time of revolution, Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto wove fairytale magic – and no-one makes it dance like our soloist Alina Ibragimova. There’s a vision of cosmic beauty from the late, great Kaija Saariaho. And finally, Nielsen launches a struggle for the future of existence itself: his shattering Fifth Symphony is one of those pieces that simply has to be experienced live.Please note start time.

Klaus Mäkelä conducts Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev with the Concertgebouw Orchestra

Since her first appearance in 2001, the violinist Lisa Batiashvili has always given performances to look forward to. She now returns to perform as soloist in Prokofiev’s delightfully melodious Second Violin Concerto. Klaus Mäkelä has paired it with Rachmaninoff’s irresistible Second Symphony, a work with which the composer avenged the failure of his First. And how! The melancholy theme of the third movement has brought tears to the eyes of many since the 1908 premiere, and will always continue to do so.Also on the programme is a surprise: a newly commissioned work, Body Cosmic, by the American composer Ellen Reid to mark her residency at the Concertgebouw and with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in the 2023-2024 season. Audiences have come to know her as a musical jack-of-all-trades, who moves effortlessly across a wide range of disparate styles and genres – from classical to avant-garde pop and electronic soundscapes. This should be interesting!

Klaus Mäkelä conducts Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev with the Concertgebouw Orchestra

Since her first appearance in 2001, the violinist Lisa Batiashvili has always given performances to look forward to. She now returns to perform as soloist in Prokofiev’s delightfully melodious Second Violin Concerto. Klaus Mäkelä has paired it with Rachmaninoff’s irresistible Second Symphony, a work with which the composer avenged the failure of his First. And how! The melancholy theme of the third movement has brought tears to the eyes of many since the 1908 premiere, and will always continue to do so.Also on the programme is a surprise: a newly commissioned work, Body Cosmic, by the American composer Ellen Reid to mark her residency at the Concertgebouw and with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in the 2023-2024 season. Audiences have come to know her as a musical jack-of-all-trades, who moves effortlessly across a wide range of disparate styles and genres – from classical to avant-garde pop and electronic soundscapes. This should be interesting!