Richard Hughes (1996) 

One Minute Symphony: Priming (2022) 

Dmitri Shostakovich(1906-1975) 

Violin Concerto No. 1 in a, op. 77 (99) (1947-1948) 

• Nocturne. Moderato 

• Scherzo. Allegro 

• Passacaglia. Andante 

• Burlesque. Allegro con brio - presto 

break 

Johannes Brahms(1833-1897) 

Symphony no. 1 in c, op. 68 (1862-1876) 

• Un poco sostenuto - Allegro 

• Andante sostenuto 

• Un poco allegretto e grazioso 

• Adagio - Più andante - Allegro non troppo, ma con brio 

End of concert approximately 4 p.m. 

Lawrence Renes - conductor 

Studied Violin at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and conducting at Royal Conservatoire The Hague. 

Highlights Conducted numerous orchestras worldwide such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Frequently appeared before the Residentie Orkest. Conducted several operas at opera houses in Sweden, Great Britain, Germany, United States, Belgium and the Netherlands, among others. Was chief conductor of the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra (1998-2003) and Generalmusikdirektor of the Bremer Theater and Bremer Philharmoniker (2001-2006). 

Simone Lamsma - violin 

Studies Yehudi Menuhin School, graduated cum laude from the Royal Academy of Music in London at the age of nineteen. 

Highlights Worked with conductors such as Jaap van Zweden, Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Neville Marriner, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, James Gaffigan and Sir Andrew Davis and has performed with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Hong Kong Philharmonic, among others. 

Violin Plays the "Mlynarksi" Stradivarius (1718). 

Other Is this season artist in residence of Residentie Orkest, Royal Conservatoire The Hague and Amare. 

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. 

Shostakovich and Brahms 

Shortly after World War II, when all countries were licking their wounds, it was Stalin and consorts who initiated their victory propaganda. Under Secretary General Zhdanov, cultural doctrine became one of the spearheads of the Soviet regime. Art and culture that did not explicitly serve the communist ideal was banned as formalistic. Dmitri Shostakovich had a reputation for both Stalinist paeans, and more modern artistic expressions that could be interpreted as undisguised criticism of the Soviet leaders. Between the two poles the composer balanced in the toughest years of the "Zhdanovshchina," with the risk every night that the secret police could be at the door.  

It was precisely during these years that Shostakovich wrote his First Violin Concerto. At a first glance in the program book, it appears to be a series of light character pieces, but appearances are deceptive. It became a concerto, dedicated to violinist David Oistrach, blown up to symphonic proportions with its intense emotional depth. 

The long drawn-out meditative melody lines with which the Nocturne begins create an atmosphere of stillness. Sometimes warm, sometimes icy. These give way to a sardonic Scherzo in which the composer sets his musical signature with the notes DSCH (D, E-flat, C, B-flat). The third movement makes the connection to the Baroque passacaglia form: a theme in the bass on which the soloist varies nine times with a plaintive melody, while the orchestration thins out more and more until only the violin solo remains in one of the longest cadenzas in the history of music. Themes from the earlier movements are recalled here, finally propelling the grand solo toward the grand finale, into which it transitions seamlessly. When preparing for the premiere, violinist David Oistrach persuaded the composer at the start of the Burlesque to rest for a few bars after all in order to - in his own words - at least still be able to "wipe the sweat from his brow. The tour de force ends with a highly virtuosic Burlesque in which the listener seems to be confronted with the question of what is reality and what is caricature. 

Given the witch hunt under Zhdanov, it is understandable that the work remained in the closet. Only after Zhdanov and Stalin died did Shostakovich and Oistrach dare to plan a premiere in 1955 with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky. It became a great success and the work triumphed on major stages worldwide within just a few years.  

That the First Symphony by Johannes Brahms also had to wait years for its first performance had entirely different reasons. Already around 1855, Brahms conceived the plan to write a symphony, but the threshold was high. Brahms suffered heavily from the pressure that tradition had imposed on him, referring to Beethoven's great symphonies. Sketch after sketch did not survive his critical scrutiny and it would take until 1876 before the work could be premiered in Karlsruhe. And still it was not the final version. With this work, the 43-year-old composer finally dared to enter into dialogue with the German symphonic tradition.  

The comparison with Beethoven was obvious, given the classical four-movement structure and the at times heroic character in Beethoven's favorite key. But above all, in the final movement there is a chorale melody strongly reminiscent of Beethoven's "Ode an die Freude. However, the work is more than "Beethoven's Tenth Symphony," as conductor Hans von Bülow characterized it. 

The two middle movements in particular deviate from Beethoven's tradition. Instead of a slow movement and a scherzo, Brahms composed two interlude-like movements. The wonderful second movement ends with a violin solo that recalls the Fourth Symphony by Robert Schumann, Brahms' close friend who had died far too young in 1856. With Schumann's widow Clara, Brahms remained good friends. In 1868 he sent her another birthday card from Switzerland featuring an alphorn melody, with the accompanying text "Hoch auf im Berg, Tief im Thal, grüss ich dich viel tausendmal." Exactly this alphorn theme is played in the fourth movement of the First Symphony, just before the much-discussed Beethoven paraphrase. But apart from its similarity to the "Ode an die Freude," the chorale theme also contains quotations from Bach's cantata Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, which Brahms uses to place Beethoven in a historical context and at the same time to silence his critics. 

Frans Boendermaker