Classical concerts featuring

Jean-Yves Thibaudet

Strauß Liszt Strauss

Strauß Liszt Strauss

Free Lunchtime Concert: Public Rehearsal Concertgebouw Orchestra

For many years now, Lunchtime Concerts have been held in the Main Hall and the Recital Hall. The concerts range from public rehearsals by the Concertgebouworkest, to chamber music performances by young up-and-coming artists.For Lunchtime Concerts you will require a free ticket, which you can buy online. Doors to the concert hall open about 30 minutes before the Lunchtime Concert starts.We offer a broad range of music: the majority of concerts include classical music, but you can sometimes hear more modern repertoire. The concert programme is announced one week in advance on our website. The concerts last thirty minutes and are free of charge. Visitors are advised that these concerts are suitable for children from six years old.

Concertgebouw Orchestra with Jean-Yves Thibaudet

The Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi is in his element with repertoire from Northern and Eastern Europe, and this programme features three such works. Vesper (Poem) by his compatriot Ester Mägi (b. 1922, d. 2021), ‘the first lady of Estonian music’, is a poetic work for strings inspired by St John’s Church in Tallinn.The Khachaturian Piano Concerto is proof that colourful, vibrant music was indeed written in the Soviet era. The work is imbued with the influence of Armenian folk music. And to add to the exotic atmosphere, the piano is accompanied by a musical saw in the middle movement! The work is grist to Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s mill, a pianist who for decades has excelled in original repertoire.Stravinsky’s PetrushkaFinally, there’s Petrushka, Stravinsky’s exuberant ballet music about a marionette who comes to life, falls in love and wreaks havoc on a Russian carnival. Listeners need no sets or dancers to see the story unfold before them, and the colourful music lets all the members of the orchestra shine.

Concertgebouw Orchestra with Jean-Yves Thibaudet

The Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi is in his element with repertoire from Northern and Eastern Europe, and this programme features three such works. Vesper (Poem) by his compatriot Ester Mägi (b. 1922, d. 2021), ‘the first lady of Estonian music’, is a poetic work for strings inspired by St John’s Church in Tallinn.The Khachaturian Piano Concerto is proof that colourful, vibrant music was indeed written in the Soviet era. The work is imbued with the influence of Armenian folk music. And to add to the exotic atmosphere, the piano is accompanied by a musical saw in the middle movement! The work is grist to Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s mill, a pianist who for decades has excelled in original repertoire.Stravinsky’s PetrushkaFinally, there’s Petrushka, Stravinsky’s exuberant ballet music about a marionette who comes to life, falls in love and wreaks havoc on a Russian carnival. Listeners need no sets or dancers to see the story unfold before them, and the colourful music lets all the members of the orchestra shine.

Concertgebouw Orchestra with Jean-Yves Thibaudet

The Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi is in his element with repertoire from Northern and Eastern Europe, and this programme features three such works. Vesper (Poem) by his compatriot Ester Mägi (b. 1922, d. 2021), ‘the first lady of Estonian music’, is a poetic work for strings inspired by St John’s Church in Tallinn.The Khachaturian Piano Concerto is proof that colourful, vibrant music was indeed written in the Soviet era. The work is imbued with the influence of Armenian folk music. And to add to the exotic atmosphere, the piano is accompanied by a musical saw in the middle movement! The work is grist to Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s mill, a pianist who for decades has excelled in original repertoire.Stravinsky’s PetrushkaFinally, there’s Petrushka, Stravinsky’s exuberant ballet music about a marionette who comes to life, falls in love and wreaks havoc on a Russian carnival. Listeners need no sets or dancers to see the story unfold before them, and the colourful music lets all the members of the orchestra shine.

Holst, Gershwin and Martin with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Robert Ziegler leads you on a journey through space and time with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Also sprach Zarathustra

The Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian's music is familiar to many from the delightful Sabre Dance of the ballet Gayane, and the Adagio from the ballet Spartacus, from which the swooning theme music for the TV series The Onedin Line was borrowed. Khachaturian unquestionably wrote music that captivates listeners.Unfortunately, his other works have rarely been performed at Konserthuset. Here, it is Jean-Yves Thibaudet who takes on the vibrant and powerful piano concerto, with a beautifully flowing and dreamlike middle movement where the strings are accompanied by a flexatone (imagine playing on a saw!). The distinguished French pianist Thibaudet has been a champion of Khachaturian's music for many years.Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft then leads the orchestra in the classic Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss. This tone poem, with its powerful – not to mention iconic – opening, is inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical novel. It is well known, of course, that Strauss's music was used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, but Stanley Kubrick actually also placed music from Khachaturian's ballet Gayane in the same film.The concert opens with the world premiere of a newly written work by the young Swedish composer Zacharias Wolfe (born 1996). Here begins a new collaboration with the Royal College of Music in Stockholm: each season a newly written work by a master's student will be performed. Wolfe's orchestral work Held by Threads is the first.Learn more about Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft