Calefax and Nederlands Kamerkoor join forces in theatrical concert

By Thea Derks, 04 April 2014

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Reviewed at Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ: Main Hall, Amsterdam on 3 April 2014

Heredia, Ensalada

Martland, Skywalk

Dolphy, God bless the child

Messiaen, Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time): Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus

Shostakovich, Prelude and Fugue in G sharp minor, Op.87 no.12 (Arr for Wind Quintet)

Ockeghem, Mort tu as navré

Monteverdi, Lamento d'Arianna

de Chavarria, Fuera, fuera! Haganles lugar!

Bjarnason, Ek ken die nag

Dlamini, Woah Lashona

Calefax

Nederlands Kamerkoor

Robert Hollingworth, Director

Through the looking glass: Amsterdam Sinfonietta are a class act

Clare Varney, 12th May

Candida Thompson’s performance of Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel with understated beauty, immaculate phrasing and restrained emotion, steals the show.

****1

Sublime singing in Scenes from Goethe's Faust

Jenny Camilleri, 6th December

Soloists and choir, headed by a spellbinding Christian Gerhaher, brought real lustre to Schumann’s treatment of Goethe’s magnum opus.

****1

Parallel symmetries and random synchronicities at Festival d’Aix

Pwyll ap Sion, 13th July

In his 2016 opera Blank Out, Dutch composer Michel van der Aa has managed to create a new kind of operatic ‘reality’ that resonates powerfully with today’s Zeitgeist. Highly recommended.

*****

Buoyant Brahms’ First from the RCO under Iván Fischer

Jenny Camilleri, 6th April

Bach’s Magnificat featured superlative solos from both singers and musicians, but the RCO and Iván Fischer reached a higher plane in a beautifully crafted and optimistic Brahms’ First Symphony.

****1

Fabulous soloists in the RCO’s St John Passion

Jenny Camilleri, 27th March

Superlative vocal and instrumental soloists, led by Michael Schade as a vividly intense Evangelist, impress in Bach’s St John Passion at the Concertgebouw.

****1

A poignantly beautiful opening to Valletta's festival

Katy Wright, 10th January

Robert White's Lamentations bring a programme of English polyphony to a memorable climax.

****1

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Thea Derks

Thea Derks studied English at Groningen University and musicology at Amsterdam University. She graduated with honours in 1996. She was singer/songwriter of the new-wave group Tess. She lectured on modern music in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw from 2003–12, gives pre-concert talks throughout the Netherlands, and is a reporter and programmer for Radio 4, the Dutch classical music station. She recently published a biography on Reinbert de Leeuw that has been well received. www.theaderks.wordpress.com