Bihlmaier meets Queyras

There will be a Starter prior to this concert. You can attend this in the Swing on the second floor to the left of cloakroom. 

Arefeh Hekmatpanah (1997)
One Minute Symphony: Veil (2023)

Opening tonight is Iranian composition student Arefeh Hekmatpanah in her One Minute Symphony, the collaboration between Residentie Orkest and Royal Conservatoire The Hague. The inspiration comes from a meeting between Hekmatpanah and jewelry designer Ingrid La Haye of The Hague. Ingrid explained how she finds inspiration in nature, using her intuition as a starting point. How Arefeh makes the link from Ingrid's organic jewelry to music can be heard during the premiere of her One Minute Symphony.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Overture 'Rosamunde' (Die Zauberharfe D644) (1820) 

The Magic Harp of Rosamunde
In our days, we know Franz Schubert as a great composer of symphonies, chamber music, piano music and, above all, a large number of songs. In his lifetime this was different. The little fame he achieved was with his operas and stage music. One of those small successes was the stage music to the drama Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern. Along with several other movements, the overture of this found its way to Concert Hall. And to think that this overture was not even initially written for the play. Just before the premiere, Schubert was commissioned to deliver an opening piece before the curtain opened. For that, he used the overture from his opera Alfonso und Estrella. Later, the overture he created for the melodrama Die Zauberharfe was linked to Rosamunde , but whether the composer himself had a hand in that remains unclear to this day. 

Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013)
Toutun monde lointain, concerto for cello and orchestra (1970) 

• Enigme 

• Regard 

• Houles 

• Miroirs 

• Anthem 

A distant world
In early 1961, composer Henri Dutilleux attended a concert where he encountered legendary cellist Mstislav Rostropovich in the performers' foyer. A lively conversation ensued which led to a commission for a cello concerto, although the cellist had to wait nearly a decade before the work was completed in 1970. The result was a five-movement composition for cello solo and orchestra with a strong poetic streak. Important inspiration Dutilleux drew from Charles Baudelaire's collection of poems Les fleurs du mal . For example, the title Tout un monde lointain (A whole world far away) is taken from the poem Chevelure. The five volumes, which flow seamlessly into one another, each have, in addition to a title, a motto in the form of a few lines from other poems in the collection. Dutilleux did not mean this as an exact description, but more as an atmospheric description of the music. In a wonderful way, the composer manages to transform Baudelaire's symbolist style into sound. It is music in pastel shades, reminiscent of impressionism, but in a modern twist. 

Emphatically, Dutilleux did not call the composition a cello concerto. True, the cello is constantly present, often with rarefied high notes, sometimes with virtuosic passages, but it is not, except for a few moments, a distinctly soloistic part. Much more, it is a thread that runs continuously recognizable throughout the piece. The cellist is not above the orchestra, but is a connecting factor that subtly unites all the motifs, lines and colors from the ensemble. It is as if from afar a whole world of sounds floats by along the horizon. 

At intermission we will serve a free drink.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Symphony No. 4 in d, op. 120 (1841-1851) 

• Ziemlich langsam - Lebhaft 

• Romanze: Ziemlich langsam 

• Scherzo: Lebhaft - Trio 

• Langsam - Lebhaft - Presto 

Symphonic fantasy
As easily as Robert Schumann wrote piano music and dozens of songs early in his career, he was initially reticent about music for orchestra. It was not until 1840 that he composed his First Symphony , which had a successful premiere under Mendelssohn's baton. Almost immediately he wrote a new symphony but it was received rather coolly at its first performance and Schumann himself also found the whole work only moderately successful. Only ten years later did he take it up again, revising it thoroughly. Schumann himself led the orchestra of the Städtischer Musikverein in Düsseldorf, of which he was the regular conductor, at the 1851 Niederrheinisches Musikfest, where the piece was received with great enthusiasm. Since he had since composed two other symphonies, this symphony therefore became known as the Fourth. 

When Schumann began work on this symphony, the original intention had been to make it a one-movement symphonic fantasia. Although the end result was a regular four-movement symphony, something of that original intention can still be found in the use of the thematic material. For example, the first movement begins with a slow introduction followed by an allegro in sonata form with two themes. In the Romanze, the slow introduction of the first movement is repeated shortly after it begins. And the Last movement opens with a slowly played first theme from the opening movement. These are just a few examples of how Schumann allows themes and motifs to recur throughout the symphony. On top of that, the movements flow into each other without interruption, so the whole quite nicely suggests a large, tightly constructed fantasy. 

Kees Wisse