Death in the light of eternity

Verdi voices that make one sit up and listen made this a memorable matinee.

Director Michieletto’s playful staging, Stefano Montanari’s expressive conducting and stylish singing from a cast of seasoned Rossinian singers make for a thoroughly enjoyable new production of the too rare Il viaggio a Reims at the Dutch National Opera.

It was a surprising afternoon of world premières at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw this weekend. With promises of young talent, such as the rising Dutch recorder player Erik Bosgraaf, and daring new compositions by Peter Adriaansz and Louis Andriessen, the event shed some light on the state of modern music today.

Many a dark tone roamed inside the Muziekgebouw as lovers of daring, opinionated orchestral music gathered there one day after the Mayan calendar ended. Diverse interpretations of apocalyptic fantasies and prophecies unfolded during this night. Apocalyptic, in its literal Greek meaning: revealing, disclosing.

The Radio Kamer Filharmonie gave a riveting performance of orchestral works of the late 18th century under the direction of Masaaki Suzuki this weekend at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. The theme of the afternoon dealt with the brief but highly influential German artistic movement dubbed Sturm und Drang.

James MacMillan’s Violin Concerto was first performed in 2010, but this afternoon, at the Dutch premiere, was the first time he conducted it. It’s quite an extraordinary piece, so full of ideas that you might wonder if he couldn’t have written two concertos instead of just the one. But when it comes to MacMillan, this potential overload of ideas actually works really well.