Orchestra of the 21st century opens Young Composers Meeting in Apeldoorn

By Thea Derks, 24 February 2014

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Reviewed at Apeldoorn City Hall (Stadhuis), Apeldoorn on 23 February 2014

Meredith, In Bloom

Krauss, I Could be a ghost, an Animal or a dead body

Andriessen, Monument for Graettinger

de Raaff, Der Einsame im Herbst

Stravinsky, Scherzo à la russe

orkest de ereprijs

Het Gelders Orkest

Ed Spanjaard, Conductor

Wim Boerman, Conductor

Dutch Reisopera’s winning A Little Night Music

Nicolas Nguyen, 26th March

Programming Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music is quite a daring move in a country with no real tradition in musical. This production by Nederlands Reisopera shows that fortune favours the bold.

****1

Reisopera's Così fan tutte: cast shine in an uninspired staging

Nicolas Nguyen, 12th February

In the Nederlandse Reisopera's Così fan tutte, the team of young soloists and the Orkest van het Oosten conducted by Arnaud Oosterbaum give a musically rewarding performance that compensates for an unconvincing stage direction.

***11

Bold music-making in Reisopera’s austere Butterfly

Jenny Camilleri, 19th September

Annemarie Kremer is a strong-willed, dramatically voiced Butterfly in Laurence Dale’s sensitive production.

***11

Eva-Maria Westbroek brings alpha star glamour to Dutch opera gala

Jenny Camilleri, 22nd May

Eva-Maria Westbroek as Sieglinde was the high point at an opera gala in support of young singers at the Concertgebouw.

***11

Juan Diego Flórez and Pretty Yende wow Amsterdam

Nicolas Nguyen, 19th May

In a somewhat long-overdue debut at the Concertgebouw, bel canto royalty Juan Diego Flórez and rising star Pretty Yende wowed the Amsterdam public with a generous programme of bel canto music.

****1

An astonishing Napoleon re-entering history

David Pinedo, 15th June

A once-in-a-lifetime experience with a perfectly arranged score to a breathtaking film.

*****

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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