Multi-media stress test for Antwerp’s new Queen Elisabeth Hall

Flemish orchestra deFilharmonie came to Amsterdam on a sunny Sunday morning and brought even sunnier music with them. Lead by Jaap van Zweden, who knows the Concertgebouw like no other, they played a program containing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture and Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, two works of incredible high energy that left many a concertgoer with a smile on her face.

Inspired by Annie Ernaux’s The Years, Philip Venables’ new opera widens the canvas to take in the whole of Europe’s postwar generation. 

McFaddens ergreifend schöne Melodieführung und Melnikovs schimmernde Klavierfarben machten den Konzertabend zu einem unvergesslichen Hörerlebnis.

Though ambitious and occasionally arresting, this revised and expanded take on the Purcell classic suffers from subtraction by addition.

Soprano Claron McFadden's pellucid voice tremendously contributed to the structural and sonic richness of Widmann's Versuch über die Fuge.

Die Video-Oper Mitra von Eva Reiter und George van Dam ist ein gewagtes Experiment, das nicht nur intensiv bedrückt, sondern auch den Alltag der Institution Psychiatrie unnötig verzerrt.