Programme Notes
Resurrection of the dead Fri 13 November 2026 • 20.15
PROGRAMME conductor Arie van Beek lighting design Paul van LaakA Igor Stravinsky 1882-1971 Symphonies d’instruments à vent (1920/1947) To the memory of Claude Achille Debussy Ton De Leeuw 1926-1996 Symphonies of Winds (1963) Homage to Igor Stravinsky Claude Debussy 1862-1918 Syrinx; for solo flute (1913) Olivier Messiaen 1908-1992 Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum (1964) • Des profondeurs de l’abîme, je crie vers toi, Seigneur: Seigneur, écoute ma voix! • Le Christ, ressuscité des morts, ne meurt plus; la mort n’a plus sur lui d’empire. • L’heure vient où les morts entendront la voix du Fils de Dieu... • Ils ressusciteront, glorieux, avec un nom nouveau - dans le concert joyeux des étoiles et les acclamations des fils du ciel. • Et j’entendis la voix d’une foule immense... there is no intermission concert ends at around 21.30 Most recent performances by our orchestra Stravinsky Symphonies d’instruments à vent: Mar 2004, conductor Hans Leenders De Leeuw Symphonies of Winds: Nov 1997, conductor Jurjen Hempel Messiaen Et exspecto ressurectionem mortuorum: May 2010, conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Cover: Photo Daniel Thurler (Unsplash)
Olivier Messiaen transcribing birdsong in musical notation. Photo by Yvonne Loriod
Memorial In Syrinx, Debussy immortalised the nymph who met her end at the hands of the god Pan. He was honoured in his own right by Stravinsky’s Symphonies d’instruments à vent. Stravinsky, in turn, was honoured by De Leeuw. His teacher Messiaen surpassed them all: he erected a glorious memorial to the dead of the First and Second World Wars – and perhaps also to all other departed souls.
Russian church music
Igor Stravinsky and Claude Debussy were colleagues and friends – the latter with some reservations. Stravinsky later stated that after all he had learnt the most from Debussy, ‘even though I found his opera Pelléas et Mélisande terribly boring’. Conversely, Debussy offered the Russian, twenty years his junior, fatherly compliments whilst writing to his publisher: ‘Stravinsky is a big child who occasionally picks his nose in the midst of music.’ This also expresses frustration; Debussy saw that Stravinsky was introducing radical innovations that would herald the end of his own poetic musical language. What he found most disappointing was that Stravinsky
was audibly distancing himself from his Russian roots, even though this was a logical consequence of his emigration. In 1915, Debussy wrote to Stravinsky with concern: ‘You are a great artist, but please remain a great Russian artist! It is a good thing to be from your own country.’ It was in vain. Stravinsky did not want to get bogged down in folklorism and was exploring new horizons. The Symphonies d’instruments à vent is one of the last works in which Stravinsky embraced national colour. Perhaps he did so to please Debussy posthumously; the work is dedicated to him. Form, melody and phrasing are partly inspired by the ritual music of the Russian
Igor Stravinsky (sitting) visiting Claude Debussy, Paris 1915. Photo by Erik Satie
Orthodox funeral service, with alternating static chord blocks (choral singing) and melodic passages (the half-spoken, half-sung prayers that link the chorales). Stravinsky suspected that this piece offered little in the way of familiar ground for Western ears. Yet it sounds no stranger than Debussy’s seemingly exotic compositions, such as Syrinx.
Indian Dreams
Unlike Debussy, Ton de Leeuw would have welcomed the fact that Stravinsky looked beyond his own cultural boundaries. De Leeuw was one of the first Dutch composers to seek connections with non-Western musical
traditions, encouraged by his teacher Olivier Messiaen. His works do without overt drama or a striking arc of tension. He often allows his textures to grow out of the acoustic peculiarities of the chosen instruments. He combined these with medieval church modes and the tonal systems he had heard in Asia. De Leeuw had a personal reason for seeking inspiration in the distant past and far beyond Europe’s borders: he wanted to rediscover the ‘purity’ that had been driven out of European music by ego-driven composers and commercial interests. Judging by the title, De Leeuw’s Symphonies of Winds can be nothing other than a homage
to Stravinsky. But it is also a fine example of De Leeuw’s musical cross-fertilisation. A journey through India, two years earlier, had left a lasting mark on his compositional style, and this work is one of the first results of that: the opening is modelled on the alap, an improvised melody that introduces traditional Hindustani music. Messiaen, by then an expert in Indian musical traditions, was naturally charmed by it. He heard in De Leeuw’s work ‘a static atmosphere that closely resembles Eastern music and which transports the listener into a kind of dreamlike state’.
‘De Leeuw’s music has an atmosphere to transport the listener into a kind of dreamlike state’
World-encompassing ecstasy
Debussy’s groundbreaking musical world had an enormous influence on later composers. For his compatriot Olivier Messiaen, Debussy’s aesthetic was a logical starting point, but still not inclusive enough. In Messiaen’s work, one finds Hindu rhythms, influences from Javanese and Balinese gamelan, and touches of Japanese music; to this he added his fascination with birdsong and the starry sky, bound together by a deeply religious conviction. With every note, Messiaen paid homage to Creation. This often lends his music an ecstatic quality, partly because he frequently employed unusual instrumentation with vivid timbres.
In 1963, Messiaen accepted a commission from the French Minister of Culture to compose a work commemorating all those Greek myths who had died in both world wars; no The same can be said of Syrinx, a short but subject was too grand for him. The result utterly unique piece written by Claude Debussy was Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum in 1913: the first major composition for the flute (‘And I await the resurrection of the dead’), in one hundred and fifty years. Debussy, of all composed for a remarkable ensemble of people – a chauvinist and a homebody who wind instruments and percussion. In doing disliked travelling – excelled at evoking distant so, Messiaen considered the acoustics of lands and bygone eras. His imagination had the churches in which the piece was to be been sparked by the Paris World’s Fairs, which performed. The music therefore consists presented a distorted yet colourful picture of mainly of layered blocks of sound that create Asian and African cultures. Combined with the a monumental effect in such a space. From influence of Symbolist poets, and a willingness the ‘cry from the depths’ (movement 1) to cast aside the traditional structure of onwards, the piece takes on a ritual character, classical music, this resulted in marvellous, reinforced by recurring strikes on a gong. deeply atmospheric music that often sounds The wind instruments present themselves like spontaneous improvisation. primarily as a choir with psalm-like singing. Syrinx is named after a water nymph from Briefly, in the fourth movement, Messiaen Greek mythology. According to the story, she allows himself greater melodic freedom: took the form of a reed stalk to escape the here, the wind instruments imitate the song advances of the shepherd god Pan. When he of the musician wren (uirapuru), a bird from unsuspectingly cut off a reed, he killed her – the Amazon rainforest. and thus the pan flute, with its plaintive sound, came into being. Michiel Cleij
Photo: Yannick Perrin
Arie van Beek • conductor Born: Rotterdam Current position: chief conductor Orchestre des Pays de Savoye Before: chief conductor Orchestre National d’Auvergne, Orchestre de Picardie, Geneva Chamber Orchestra, Doelen Ensemble Education: percussion and conducting at the Rotterdam Conservatory with Edo de Waart and David Porcelijn Awards: Elly Ameling Award (2003); medal of the city of Clermont Ferrand; Erasmusspeld of the city of Rotterdam; Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Guest appearances: Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Nieuw Ensemble World premieres: Guillaume Connesson, Suzanne Giraud, Kaija Saariaho, Aulis Sallinen, Klaas de Vries, Peter Jan Wagemans Debuut Rotterdams Philharmonisch: 2016
Agenda House of Victory Sat 14 November 2026 • 19.30 Sun 15 November 2026 • 14.30 Theater Babel Rotterdam Ensemble Rotterdam Philharmonic players Ensemble Babel and guest actors direction and compositions Jonathan Bonny Music for Breakfast #1 Sun 15 November 2026 • 10.30 Trattoria Sophia musicians and programme: rpho. nl/eng Tue 17, Wed 18, Thu 19, Fri 20, Sat 21 November 2026 • 19.30 Sun 22 November 2026 • 13.30 conductor Justin Freer Williams Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Sint Sing Along (3+) Wed 18 November 2026 • 13.30 and 16.00 (de Doelen) Sat 21 November 2026 • 11.00 and 14.00 (Hofpleintheater) Sun 22 November 2026 • 11.00 and 14.00 (Hofpleintheater) conductor & arrangements Ronald Ent Sinterklaas Sinterklaas Stip and Stippel Rik van der Loos, Maaike Wijntje chorus Jeugdtheater Hofplein script and direction Peter Speijer
Musicians Honorary Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin Lahav Shani Principal Guest Conductor Tarmo Peltokoski
Rosalinde Kluck León van den Berg Olfje van der Klein Jan Navarro Jutta Demuynck Cello Emanuele Silvestri Gustaw Bafeltowski Joanna Pachucka Daniel Petrovitsch Mario Rio Eelco Beinema Carla Schrijner Pepijn Meeuws Yi-Ting Fang Killian White Paul Stavridis
Clarinet/ Bass Clarinet Romke-Jan Wijmenga Bassoon Pieter Nuytten Lola Descours Marianne Prommel
First Violin Bassoon/ Marieke Blankestijn, Contrabassoon Concert Master Elias Agsteribbe Vlad Stanculeasa, Concert Master Horn Quirine Scheffers David Fernández Alonso Saskia Otto Felipe Freitas Maria Dingjan Wendy Leliveld Marie-José Schrijner Richard Speetjens Noëmi Bodden Laurens Otto Petra Visser Pierre Buizer Double Bass Sophia Torrenga Matthew Midgley Hadewijch Hofland Trumpet Ying Lai Green Annerien Stuker Alex Elia Jonathan Focquaert Alexandra van Beveren Arjen Leendertz Adrián Martínez Marie Duquesnoy Simon Wierenga Ricardo Neto Sarah Decamps Javier Clemen Martínez Giovanni Giardinella Mario Fernández Second Violin Trombone Charlotte Potgieter Pierre Volders Flute Laurens van Vliet Alexander Verbeek Juliette Hurel Elina Staphorsius Remko de Jager Joséphine Olech Jun Yi Dou Manon Gayet Bob Bruyn Bass trombone Eefje Habraken Rommert Groenhof Flute/Piccolo Maija Reinikainen Beatriz Baião Babette van den Berg Tuba Melanie Broers Martijn van Rijswijk Oboe Robin Veldman Karel Schoofs Timpani/ Annija Kolerta Jesús Pinillos Rivera Percussion Anja van der Maten Danny van de Wal Viola Anne Huser Oboe/Cor Anglais Ronald Ent Martijn Boom Roman Spitzer Ron Tijhuis Jesús Iberti Rubira Galahad Samson José Moura Nunes Clarinet Harp Kerstin Bonk Julien Hervé Albane Baron Janine Baller Bruno Bonansea Veronika Lénártová Alberto Sánchez García