19.30 • Preliminary programme
Smell Christmas: create your own Christmas perfume with Forêt Atelier
See Christmas: make a Christmas arrangement with eco-friendly flowers
Hear Christmas: join the singers of A Cappella Group VOISZ
Taste Christmas: concoct a Christmas Cookie mix with Aap Noot Brood Bakery
PROGRAMME
20.30 • Concert in the Auditorium
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
conductor Aziz Shokhakimov
violin Maria Milstein
Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)
Ruslan and Ludmilla: Overture (1842)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
The Nut Cracker: Suite, Op. 71a (1892)
• Miniature Overture
• March
• Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy
• Russian Dance (Trepak)
• Arabian Dance (Coffee)
• Chinese Dance (Tea)
• Dance of the Reed Flutes (Mirlitons)
• Waltz of the Flowers
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Sérénade mélancolique for violin and orchestra, Op. 26 (1875)
Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978)
Masquerade: Suite, Op. 48a (1944)
• Waltz
• Nocturne
• Mazurka
• Romance
• Galop
Illustrations: Sterric
Photos: Nikola Bikar (cover) and Colin Fearing
© 2025 Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Moscow, December 1940
The Tchaikovsky Conservatory
Aram Khachaturyan’s
Missing link
Scenario by Bart Diels
Drawings by Sterric
No … this it ain’t either! What’s lacking?
Should I go and ask good old Myaskovsky for advice?
So you are composing the incidental music for Masquerade? Brilliant! Sure, but I just cannot get the Waltz right
Come on, you aren’t my pupil anymore! You’re now a colleague of our Pyotr Ilych
Well…
Is that it? Afraid you’ll never match his Waltz of the Flowers?
That one is unsurpassable indeed
You must get rid of a complex
Masquerade is set around 1800, far before Tchaikovsky’s time
Here are some little waltzes from those days for you to study
Well, thanks a lot for your wise advise, Nikolai Yakovlevich
Was he mocking me? I don’t know him like that
But how on earth are these old ditties going to help me?
Aram, a bit more awake, please
Moscow, Spring 1941
In Evgeniya PasternakLourié’s atelier
You are getting your portrait painted!
Why can’t I get it to work?
No, not at all. A portrait of yourself!
Just like Tchaikovsky’s. Or Glinka’s
Sure, of a composer who isn’t even capable of writing a proper waltz
Wait! This melody!
I think I’ve found the missing link!
Hush! This is the look! Now be still!
Moscow, 21 June 1941
After the first night of Masquerade, in the auditorium of the Vakhtangov Theatre
Bravo, Aram! You gloriously defeated the ghost of Tchaikovsky!
Thank you
They played your Waltz in all four acts! A hit in one single night.
Ah, look, he’s pointing your way!
So have you had good use from the scores I lent you?
Well…
On 22 June 1941, one day after the premiere, the German army invaded the Soviet Union. A month later, the Vakhtangov Theatre was hit during a bombing raid on Moscow. One of the actors, who was on guard duty in the building that night, was killed; the stage sets went up in flames. The theatre company was evacuated to Siberia and continued to perform Masquerade there. After Aram Khachaturian adapted the incidental music into a concert suite in 1944, his waltz conquered the rest of the world. In his memoirs, published after his death, the composer would look back on the history of its creation.
‘Unadulterated lyricism, fairytale lightness … Maria Milstein impresses with captivating narrative power,’ writes NRC Handelsblad. Russian music runs through her veins: she was born in Moscow in a family of musicians and picked up the violin at age five. By the way of France and Italy she arrived in the Netherlands, where she has settled. In 2018 she won the Dutch Music Award, the highest recognition for a classical musician in the Netherlands. Quickly conquering the world now, today she makes her debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic.
Aziz Shokhakimov • conductor
Aziz Shokhakimov was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. At the age of six he went to the Uspensky Music School for Gifted Children, where he studied violin, viola and orchestral conducting. At 13 he made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan, conducting Beethoven’s Fifth; five years later the same orchestra appointed him their chief conductor. At present Aziz is Music Director of the orchestras ofTekfen and Strasbourg and gets invited all over the world. This is his first appearance with the Rotterdam Philharmonic.
Rotterdam Philharmonic
The Rotterdam Philharmonic distinguishes itself with intensely energetic performances and acclaimed recordings. Founded in 1918 it has claimed its own position among Europe’s foremost orchestras. Having its home in De Doelen Concert Hall, the orchestra can also frequently be heard in other locations – from the local venues to the most prestigious halls at home and abroad. In 2020 the orchestra became world news with a stay-at-home rendition of Beethoven's Ode to Joy, which quickly gained over 3 million views.