Tragic undertones and optimistic spirit

By Olga de Kort, 18 November 2015

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Reviewed at Concertgebouw: Main Hall, Amsterdam on 15 November 2015

Schumann, Manfred Overture, Op.115

Schumann, Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.54

Schumann, Symphony no. 2 in C major, Op.61

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Bernard Haitink, Conductor

Murray Perahia, Piano

Chamber Orchestra of Europe brings all-Brahms evening to Philadelphia

Cameron Kelsall, 10th December

Conducted by honorary member Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the COE’s all-Brahms concert features the composer's First Symphony and final major work, the Double Concerto for Violin and Cello.

****1

Beauty from Iestyn Davies, energy from Robin Ticciati in Gstaad

David Karlin, 2nd February

Iestyn Davies shows how to make every word count in a fairly standard sampler of Baroque arias; Ticciati is a fireball on the podium with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

***11

Robin Ticciati shuffles incidental music with the COE

Alexander Hall, 19th April

Beethoven was the spiritus rector of Ticciati's COE concert at the Elbphilharmonie, with Lisa Batiashvili in commanding form for that composer's fiddle concerto.

****1

Jansen dazzles Antwerp in fine Prokofiev with Pappano and the COE

Clare Varney, 3rd December

Janine Jansen’s exquisite reading of Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto leaves the Belgian audience on a high.

****1

Yannick Nézet-Séguin's Beethoven cycle concludes

Alexander Hall, 10th July

Nézet-Séguin and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe bring to a triumphant end their Beethoven cycle in Baden-Baden with coruscating performances of the Second and Third Symphonies.

*****

Nézet-Séguin and the COE bring Beethoven to Baden-Baden

Cameron Kelsall, 4th July

The elegance of the First Symphony served as a perfect curtain raiser for the mammoth, exultant Ninth.

*****

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Olga de Kort

Musicologist and music critic Olga de Kort (The Netherlands) studied in Russia (piano, culture sciences), France (journalism) and the Netherlands (musicology and music history, music education and communication, organ) where she has lived from 1998. She is active as a music journalist, lecturer in music history and culture and as a freelance musician. She writes for Piano Bulletin, Pianist, Luister, Preludium, De Klank, Het Orgel, Muziek&Liturgie, Kunstzone and Bachtrack. Besides her personal journalist blog, Olga de Kort has a website about Russian music in the Netherlands. At this moment she is working on a book about Russian music and musicians in the Netherlands and on a biography of Russian singer Anna El Tour.

Tragic undertones and optimistic spirit in Haitink's Schumann programme in Amsterdam