Under conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, the Residentie Orkest presented an exuberant programme of perennial favourites including Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Ouverture, Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 1 with soloist Wibi Soerjadi, and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7.Rouvali opened the programme with Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, a seascape which the young Finnish conductor evoked with fluid gestures.
The Netherlands Opera’s revival production of Prokofiev’s L’amour des trois oranges is sweet, juicy, and just a bit bitter in the right moments.This production presents Prokofiev’s piece in the original French with Dutch and English supertitles. At its first performance in Chicago in 1921, Prokofiev’s opera was presented in French rather than Russian. French is a sensible choice for this region.
On Saturday evening, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta with soloist Ronald Brautigam presented a splendidly varied programme including pieces by Webern, Mozart and Bach.The Sinfonietta began their programme with a thrilling adaptation of Webern’s Langsamer Satz, an early neo-Romantic piece originally written for string quartet.
