Tonight the Netherlands Radio Choir sings of the small and the incomprehensible. Their collaborative singing shows how both stillness and greatest sounds can take the breath away, as heard in the chant of fate in Brahms's Schicksalslied. They also guide us straight into heaven with the cathedral of choral literature: Poulenc's elusive and otherworldly Gloria.

This sublime work is by Francis Poulenc, the composer described as a combination of monk and bad boy. This complexity and contradiction characterizes the evening, but the "Amen" of the Gloria takes every listener into its beauty. In between is a musical sketch of Respighi's Fontane di Roma , and the sounds of Andriessen's Ricercare. It was a great desire of the Residentie Orkest to work with the Netherlands Radio Choir again after a long time. Herewith, together with our regular guest conductor Jun Märkl, we welcome one of today's best lyrical sopranos: Elizabeth Watts. The British will make her debut with the Residentie Orkest tonight.