Programme Notes
Season Opening Fri 18 September 2026 • 20.15
PROGRAMME conductor Bar Avni cello Sheku Kanneh-Mason Georges Bizet 1838–1875 From Carmen – Concert Suite No. 1 (1875/1885) • Les Toréadors Lili Boulanger 1893–1918 D’un matin de printemps (1918) Camille Saint-Saëns 1835–1921 Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33 (1872) • Allegro non troppo – Allegro molto – Tempo I – • Allegretto con moto – Tempo I – Un peu moins vite – • Più allegro comme le premier mouvement – Molto allegro intermission Darius Milhaud 1892–1974 Le Bœuf sur le toit, Op. 58 (1919) Mel Bonis 1858–1937 From Trois femmes de légende (1909) • Ophélie, Op. 165 • Salomé, Op. 100/2 Maurice Ravel 1875–1937 Boléro (1928) concert ends at around 22:15 Most recent performances by our orchestra: Bizet Les Toréadors: Oct 2022, conductor Bertie Baigent Boulanger D’un matin de printemps: Nov 2024, conductor Stéphane Denève Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1: Nov 2016, cello Julian Steckel, conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky Milhaud Le boeuf sur le toit: Feb 2022, conductor HK Gruber Bonis Ophélie and Salome: first performance Ravel Boléro: Mar 2025, conductor Han-Na Chang Cover: Photo Melanie Kreuz (Unsplash)
Introduction One hour before the start of the concert, Marien van Staalen will give an introduction (in Dutch) to the programme, admission €7,50. Tickets are available at the hall, payment by debit card. The introduction is free for Vrienden.
Carmen: illustration (1875) by Prudent-Louis Leray for the opera’s premiere poster
The temptations of Paris In the space of half a century, the Parisian music scene transformed from a conservative stronghold into an avant-garde hotbed. But what never changed during those turbulent times was the French sense of colour, nuance, elegance, sensuality and clarity. A programme brimming with music as the art of seduction. Bizet and Saint-Saëns
When Carmen premiered in Paris in March 1875, the audience reacted with astonishment rather than enthusiasm. A cigarette factory worker as the heroine, a fatal love affair ending in murder, and music that paid little heed to the prevailing conventions of opera – for many, it was simply too much. Georges Bizet, the 36-year-old composer, died that very same year, without knowing that his opera would go on to become one of the greatest successes in the history of music. Bizet’s close friend Ernest Guiraud compiled two concert suites from the opera’s score. ‘Les Toréadors’, the finale of the first suite, combines two melodies: the ‘Prélude’ with which the opera begins, and the procession of the bullfighters from the fourth act. The latter resembles a festive march, but as is so often the case with Bizet, something ominous lurks behind the festivity. The arena is a place
of both glory and death. Moreover, Bizet demonstrates how an orchestra can sound light and transparent without losing any of its dramatic power – a quality that would later become the hallmark of much French music. Two years before the world would be introduced to Bizet’s Carmen, Camille SaintSaëns’s First Cello Concerto was premiered. In the conservative musical circles of Paris at the time, the composer was known as a radical young modernist, and this new concerto gave conservative listeners every reason to take offence. Take the opening alone: the cello gets straight to the point, with no orchestral introduction. Even the usual threemovement form seems to have dissolved into a single, sweeping musical arc. Yet despite these surprises, the audience responded with unanimous enthusiasm. The innovation in this work lies not in revolutionary effects, but in
Le bœuf sur le toit: illustration (1920) by Eduardo Garcia Benito for the fashion magazine La Gazette du Bon ton
its naturalness. The solo part is virtuosic, yet always remains lyrical and melodious; there is no showy display of virtuosity. The orchestra does not merely accompany but engages in a refined dialogue with the soloist. SaintSaëns’ reputation as one of France’s leading composers was firmly established. Yet barely a quarter of a century later, he would already be considered hopelessly old-fashioned.
Bonis and Boulanger
Paris had changed at breakneck speed. World’s Fairs had drawn visitors from all corners of the globe, and new ideas were constantly emerging. Through Impressionism, painters offered a different perspective on reality, whilst composers did something similar with sound. Harmony became colour, rhythm became movement, and the orchestra
acquired an ever-richer spectrum of tones. It was in this world that Mel Bonis also came into her own. Fortunately, her music is now being performed more and more frequently, but during her lifetime she remained largely out of the spotlight. This had less to do with her talent than with the limited opportunities available to female composers around 1900. Nevertheless, Bonis was highly regarded by Saint-Saëns and Debussy, amongst others. Ophélie and Salomé, both from 1909, are two dramatic narratives. And yet everything remains restrained; nowhere does the expression descend into sensationalism. It is precisely in this that Bonis proves herself to be a great and thoroughly French composer. A generation younger than Mel Bonis, Lili
Motifs appear and disappear like sunlight through leaves, rhythms tumble over one another Boulanger seemed to have the momentum to break through the glass ceiling. She was an exceptional talent and, in 1913, became the first woman ever to win the Prix de Rome. Her life, however, was cut short. When she died in 1918, she was only 24 years old. D’un matin de printemps is one of her final works. The remarkable thing is that the music reveals hardly any sense of farewell. Everything is in motion. Motifs appear and disappear like sunlight through leaves, rhythms tumble over one another, and the orchestra seems to be constantly changing colour, in a new kind of clarity and optimistic lightness. In that sense, Boulanger’s work seems like a prelude to the new ideas that would transform French music after the war.
Milhaud and Ravel
After the armistice of 1918, many composers no longer sought grandeur, but rather clarity, simplicity and directness. In a city buzzing with curiosity, American jazz, South American rhythms and the European avant-garde came together. The solemnity of the nineteenth century gave way to irony and playfulness. This is precisely what characterises the musical language of Darius Milhaud. During a stay in Brazil, he became fascinated by the vibrancy of popular folk music. The surrealist ballet Le Bœuf sur le toit from 1919 reflects this. Maurice Ravel, too, drew on a variety of external influences. He explored jazz and the blues and often managed to incorporate his Spanish heritage (his mother was Basque) into his music in a subtle way. This is also evident in his best-known orchestral work, the Boléro from 1928. This almost minimalist masterpiece is imbued with the spirit of destruction and renewal that so characterised the 1920s. The work was commissioned by the famous Russian ballerina Ida Rubinstein. Ravel set himself the aim of sustaining a rhythm and a single melody for as long as possible, thereby creating a work that would serve as the basis for a ballet about seduction and destruction. Once Ravel has established the characteristic rhythm on the snare drum, the repeating melody travels through the orchestra, sounding ever fuller. Towards the very end, Ravel modulates as suddenly as he does briefly from C to E. A dramatic and explosive moment that sent the audience into a veritable frenzy during the ballet’s premiere in Paris in 1928. ‘I have written only one masterpiece,’ Ravel later told his French colleague Arthur Honegger. ‘That is the Boléro. Unfortunately, the work contains no music.’ Paul Janssen
Photo: Jean-Baptiste Millot
Photo: Mahaneela
Bar Avni • conductor
Sheku Kanneh-Mason • cello
Born: Sakhalin, Russia - raised in Israel Current position: 2026 Villa Albertine Artist in Residence Previously: Chief Conductor Bayer Philharmonic Orchestra (2021–24) Education: First percussion lessons at the age of eight; studies orchestral conducting in Tel Aviv with Yoav Talmi, in Graz with Martin Sieghart and in Hamburg with Ulrich Windfuhr Breakthrough: 2024, as winner of First Prize and four special prizes at the La Maestra Conducting Competition in Paris Subsequently: projects with Paris Mozart Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and Bremen Philharmonic; debut invitations from London Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Copenhagen Philharmonic, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and Gulbenkian Orchestra Debut Rotterdam Philharmonic: 2026
Born: Bahrain - raised in Nottingham, England Education: cello at the Junior Academy of the Royal Academy of Music from the age of nine, then with Hannah Roberts at the Royal Academy of Music Breakthrough: 2016, winner of the BBC Young Musician Competition Subsequently: Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, guest soloist at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (2018), Artist in Residence 2025–26 with the New York Philharmonic, ambassador for the Antigua and Barbuda Youth Symphony Orchestra, recitals in Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin and Amsterdam Honours: Member of the Order of the British Empire (2020) Instrument: Matteo Goffriller, 1700 Debut Rotterdam Philharmonic: 2026
Agenda Fri 25 September 2026 • 20.15 Sun 27 September 2026 • 14.15 conductor Lahav Shani soprano Aleksandra Kurzak mezzosoprano Annalisa Stroppa tenor Dmytro Popov bass Georg Zeppenfeld chorus Laurens Symfonisch Verdi Messa da Requiem Thu 1 October 2026 • 20.15 Fri 2 October 2026 • 20.15 conductor Philipp von Steinaecker violin Bomsori Kim Webern Symphonie Beethoven Violin Concerto Beethoven Symphony No. 6 ‘Pastoral’ Scapino Ballet: La Mer Thu 8 October 2026 • 20.00 Fri 9 October 2026 • 20.00 Sat 10 October 2026 • 20.00 Sun 11 October 2026 • 14.30 Nieuwe Luxor Theater Rotterdam conductor and soprano Barbara Hannigan chorus Laurens Symfonisch dance Scapino Ballet Rotterdam concept, direction, choreography Nanine Linning Debussy La mer Debussy Sirènes Kyriakides Abyssal (World premiere) Thu 15 October 2026 • 20.15 Fri 16 October 2026 • 20.15 conductor Tarmo Peltokoski piano Yuja Wang Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2
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 Tobias Staub Karel Schoofs Timpani/ Robin Veldman Jesús Pinillos Rivera Percussion Annija Kolerta Anja van der Maten Danny van de Wal Viola Oboe/Cor Anglais Ronald Ent Martijn Boom Anne Huser Ron Tijhuis Jesús Iberti Rubira Roman Spitzer Galahad Samson Clarinet Harp José Moura Nunes Julien Hervé Albane Baron Kerstin Bonk Bruno Bonansea Janine Baller Alberto Sánchez García Veronika Lénártová