This afternoon's concert will be recorded by NPO Radio 4 and broadcast on Monday, March 13 in the Evening Concert from 8 p.m. onwards.

Residentie Orkest The Hague 

Jun Märkl, conductor 

Carolyn Sampson, soprano 

Toshio Hosokawa (1955) 

Uzu (2019, Dutch premiere) 

Break 

Richard Strauss (1864-1949) 

Vier letzte Lieder (1948) 

• Frühling 

• September 

• Beim Schlafengehen 

• Im Abendrot 

Richard Strauss (1864-1949) 

Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30 (1896) 

Einleitung oder Sonnenaufgang - Von den Hinterweltern - Von der großen Sehnsucht - Von den Freuden- und Leidenschaften - Das Grablied - Von der Wissenschaft - Der Genesende - Das Tanzlied - Nachtwandlerlied 

End of concert approximately 4:15 p.m. 

Jun Märkl - conductor 

Studied Violin piano and orchestral conducting at the Musikhochschule in Hanover. Studied with Sergiu Celibidache, Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, among others. 

Current position Chief Conductor Malysian Philharmonic Orchestra, regular guest conductor Residentie Orkest, artistic advisor Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra. 

Highlights Stood as conductor for all European opera houses. Was chief conductor of the Staatstheater in Saarbrücken (1991-1994), Mannheim Nationaltheater (1994-2000), Orchestre National de Lyon (2005-2011), MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig (2007-2012) and Basque National Orchestra (2014-2016). Conducted, among others, the Orchestre de Paris, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle Orchester, Wiener Symphoniker and many American orchestras. Conducted Wagner's complete Ring at the Deutsche Oper. Made his debut at the Residentie Orkest in 2011. 

Carolyn Sampson - soprano 

Education Birmingham University. 

Highlights Worked with orchestras such as the Freiburger Barockorchester, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Residentie Orkest, various English orchestras and ensembles and the orchestras of San Francisco, Boston, Cincinatti, Philadelphia and Detroit with conductors such as Ivor Bolton, Philippe Herreweghe, Riccardo Chailly, Harry Christophers and Andris Nelsons. Gave recitals at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall, among others; also sang various opera roles at the English National Opera, Salzburg Festival, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and at various opera houses worldwide. 

Other Has numerous multi-award-winning recordings to her credit. 

Website www.carolynsampson.com  

Residentie Orkest The Hague 

Founded The Hague, 1904 

Current chief conductor Anja Bihlmaier 

Permanent guest conductors Richard Egarr and Jun Märkl 

Chief conductors Henri Viotta, Peter van Anrooy, Frits Schuurman, Willem van Otterloo, Jean Martinon, Ferdinand Leitner, Hans Vonk, Evgenii Svetlanov, Jaap van Zweden, Neeme Järvi, Nicholas Collon. 

To be seen at Amare, Paard, The National Opera, Royal Concertgebouw, De Doelen, TivoliVredenburg among others . 

Education Annual outreach to over 40,000 schoolchildren, adults and amateur musicians in educational projects. Part of this is The Residents, through which the orchestra brings hundreds of children from districts in The Hague into contact with classical music. 

Hosokawa & Strauss 

A concert with a philosophical slant. Will you join Hosokawa in his timeless swirls of life? Or instead, do you muse with Strauss on the finiteness of life? But perhaps you prefer to think along with Nietzsche in his quest for the perfection of life.  

Whirlpool 

In his music, Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa often connects contemporary classical music with the traditional music of his country. Such is the case in Uzu, a work he composed on the occasion of the sixtieth birthday of our regular guest conductor Jun Märkl. He found inspiration in the sho, an ancient Japanese wind instrument consisting of several bamboo pipes with reeds. It can be brought to sound with both exhalation and inhalation, which differ slightly in sound and allow you to keep playing almost without interruption. Hosokawa compared this to a subtle swirl of sound that can continue infinitely in time. In Uzu, which literally means "whirlpool," he divides the orchestra into five groups, three on stage and two in the audience. In the process, he lets the music circulate between the groups so that, as a listener, you are in the middle of the vortex and can become totally immersed in it. 

Last song 

Richard Strauss had become famous for his expressive symphonic poems and controversial operas. But he was also criticized for his overly accommodating attitude toward the Nazi regime. By 1948, the war had been over for three years and Strauss, at 84, was a very elderly man. In that year, he composed his Vier letzte Lieder on texts by Joseph von Eichendorff and Hermann Hesse. Beautiful poems that deal with transience and finiteness of life and for Strauss his musical testament. This goes beyond just the choice of text. For example, the songs are written for soprano, a reference to his wife Pauline who had celebrated triumphs as a great soprano. The horn plays an important role in the work, a tribute to his father who had been a horn player and had taught Strauss the first principles in music. He also reflects on his own career. Sixty years ago he had composed Tod und Verklärung, a symphonic poem about an old man facing death on his deathbed. The famous "Verklärungs-Melodie" from it returns briefly in the song Im Abendrot. It is as if Strauss thereby completes the cycle of his own life. 

The road to perfection 

Also sprach Zarathustra is by no means the easiest book Friedrich Nietzsche wrote. On the basis of a large number of scenes and wise sayings, he states that, in light of Darwin's theory of evolution, man today is only a link in the development from man ape to the perfect man, who can be perfectly happy in his perfection. That Richard Strauss chose this very book to incorporate into a great symphonic fantasy is actually not so surprising. Nietzsche's text, although it is prose, has a poetic, sometimes even musical character. Telling are the writer's words, "In what category does this Zarathustra actually belong? I believe almost, in the symphonies.' 

In his symphonic poem, Strauss outlines several moments in the book. Like Nietzsche, he begins with the dawn of humanity, an overwhelming sunrise. That imperfect man is hindered in his evolution by religion, Strauss makes himself heard in some corrupted but recognizable Gregorian melodies. The imperfection of science can be heard in an academic fugue that collapses in its own complexity. Parts like Von der großen Sehnsucht and Das Grablied also echo the unfulfilled longing and mortality of fallible man. But it is not all doom and gloom; there is also joy and healing. The beauty is that Nietzsche, in addition to profound philosophical traits, also posits the ideal man in terms such as gaiety and humor and has him dancing and singing. Strauss, who was known for his sense of humor, does not let that be said twice, Following Nietzsche's example, he makes people sing, laugh and dance to a truly Viennese waltz. 

At the conclusion of Strauss' symphonic poem, humanity has not yet reached the ultimate. The music is based on two keys that are consonant in themselves but so far apart that they rub against each other. When Strauss plays them alternately, it already gives uncomfortable twists and turns, but when they sound intermingled in the Last bars it degenerates into dissonance. For now, humanity has a long way to go. 

Kees Wisse