Strings and percussion help the soul into a new rhythm. For example, Darius Milhaud wrote La Creation du Monde in 1923 after visiting Harlem in the United States. The freedom and originality of jazz he heard there inspired him to put the African creation story into music. Using a variety of instruments, they make Milhaud's new world, full of jazz and blues melodies, come to life.

This experimental freedom is followed up by the renowned, yet unorthodox percussion of John Cage's Third Contruction. Similarly, the Residentie Orkest musicians give their interpretation of the theme of percussion and strings throughout the rest of the evening. As many as four percussionists take on the extraordinary Third Construction. Next is Beethoven's String Quartet No. 10. In their own interpretation, the strings bring out the most beautiful of Beethoven's characteristics, in a masterpiece that is also on the United Nations heritage list.