Lera Auerbach in The Hague

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. 

Annija Zarina (2000)
One Minute Symphony: In the midst of (2023) 

The festive evening begins with a musical birthday present, a special One Minute Symphony written by young composition student Annija Zarina. This time not a meeting turned into music but a short composition written especially for Lera Auerbach who celebrates her 50th birthday this weekend. Read more about this One Minute Symphony here. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Piano ConcertoNo. 20 in d, KV 466 (1785) 

• Adagio 

• Romanze 

• Rondo, Allegro assai 

Rare Minor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto in d is among the most popular he composed. It was the only concerto of his that held repertoire throughout the nineteenth century and was loved by all the great pianists. It might have had something to do with the fact that it is one of Mozart's few works with a key in a minor key, and the sometimes quite violent nature of the piece must undoubtedly have appealed to the Romantic mind. It has given rise to all possible speculation about Mozart's state of mind while writing. Had something bad happened to him, was he depressed in those days, or did he have great worries? 

Exactly what was going on in Mozart's mind when he wrote this piano concerto is unknown, but circumstances were by no means depressing. He was truly at the height of his fame and regularly gave a series of subscription concerts where he performed as conductor and soloist. It earned him hefty sums, so much so that he was able to move into a spacious apartment in Vienna. The Piano Concerto in d was scheduled for February of 1785. Mozart's father Leopold had arrived in Vienna just before to stay with his son and daughter-in-law for a while. Even on the evening of his arrival, he was whisked away to the concert. As usual, the preparation had been hectic and the piece was not ready until just before the premiere. Therefore, the copyist had not finished writing out the parts so that the Last part could not be rehearsed and was performed unprepared. Nevertheless, it became a huge success. "Das Konzert war unvergleichlich!", wrote father Mozart afterwards to his daughter Nannerl. 

At intermission we will serve a free drink.

Lera Auerbach (1973)
Symphony No. 5 'Paradise Lost' (2022, Dutch premiere)  

• Prologue - Eve's Lament 

• Adam's Lament - Epilogue 

Paradise complaint 

In 2019, Lera Auerbach composed a one-movement orchestral work entitled Eve's Lament. As part of a composition commission on the occasion of the 2022 Nuremberg State Theatre, she expanded the work into a complete symphony, her Fifth, entitled Paradise Lost. It became a complete four-movement work with a prologue and epilogue, in which, in addition to Eve's complaint, Adam's is also addressed. 

The source of inspiration for the work was John Milton's great epic poem of the same name, Paradise Lost , written in 1663. In it, the poet gives a description of the fallen angel Lucifer who, as a serpent, tempts Adam and Eve in Paradise, as a result of which they are expelled by God and must live out their days as mortals. In the eleventh section, the two unfortunates voice a complaint about the Paradise they have lost. Auerbach uses these two passages as the basis for the two complaints that form the main body of the symphony. They are both different in character. Eve laments the fact that she must now lose the beautiful garden she so loved; Adam is especially angry that it is happening to him.

The whole thing could lead to a kind of mystical and pessimistic music, and in part it does. Regularly in the score you come across playing indications like tragico or pesante (heavy) and the mood of the music is largely in minor. Auerbach also uses various effects to create a mysterious atmosphere. For example, the instrument depicting Eve is the ondes-Martenot, an electronic instrument from the early years of musical electronics, which has a rarefied, somewhat heavenly sound. 

Fond memories 

But Auerbach's symphony is not all doom and gloom. Every now and then the sun briefly breaks through all the shades of gray. For example, she explicitly prescribes that some important solos in the strings should not be played by the leaders, but rather by players from the back desks. A fine example of musical emancipation as a boost to the hard-working tutti violinist. The finest moments, however, are some fragments in Eve's Lament in which she quotes two songs by Henry Purcell, after all a contemporary of Milton. In doing so, she brings the baroque era of the poem equally close to her own experience of lost paradise. 

And for good reason. Don't we all have happy times in our lives that we nevertheless lose and look back on longingly? For Auerbach, that experience is not purely negative. Because remembering those beautiful moments can give you courage and strength even in difficult times. According to Auerbach, "It is important for every person to have such a thread-of-Ariadne of magical memories." 

Kees Wisse