Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra: Program 2 - Legendary at Concert Hall, QPAC

Since its first concert in 1888, the Concertgebouw Orchestra has been special. Resident in the opulent Amsterdam Concertgebouw (Dutch for concert hall), the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra has cultivated a sound that combines velvety smoothness with the steely virtuosity of 120 of the world’s best musicians.


PROGRAM 2 - LEGENDARY

Monday 25 November, 7.30pm
Mariss Jansons - Conductor
Wagenaar Overture: The Taming Of The Shrew, Op.25
Stravinsky The Firebird Suite (1919)
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 In E Minor, Op.64
This evening's concert opens with a nod to the music of the Netherlands, with Dutch composer Johan Wagenaar's bustling overture to Shakespeare's comedy, written in a sparkling style reminiscent of Richard Strauss.

'Astonish me!' This was the challenge that Sergei Diaghilev, the impresario of the Ballet Russes levelled at his artists. One of them, the young Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, responded with The Firebird, a heady blend of fairytale and sophisticated musical magic painted in the vivid colours of Russian folk art. The Firebird dazzles and soars, seduces and terrifies. In the hands of the RCO, this is indeed music to astonish.

At the core of any orchestra's repertoire must stand the late symphonies of Tchaikovsky. They are documents as profound as any in Russian literature. In one sense the Fifth Symphony juxtaposes melancholy with bright-eyed joy, brooding stasis with unstoppable energy. In other words it's about life, as we're propelled through its peaks and valleys by inescapable fate (the 'motto' of this symphony). Tchaikovsky pours his heart out in ravishing song and dance, made all the more splendid by the clarity and insight of the legendary Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.