y e a r 3 - n u m b e r 5 - j u ly 2 0 1 6
Refreshing crossover ‘Totally unexpected and exciting’ – that
liams arrangement and klezmer music
We normally sing a cappella. But with
tet made up of musicians of the Royal
started off standing around the audience
like one big celebration. So much sound!
was the performance given by a quinConcertgebouw Orchestra and the sin-
gers from the Kobra Ensemble at the
Salon concert on 8 June. An evening between smiles and rapture.
Salon members and partners are well accustomed to crossover: whether it’s clas-
sical meets jazz, cabaret or pop music, chances are they’ve been there before. But the performance in the Recital Hall gi-
ven by the Kobra Ensemble and a clarinet
by Alexander Krein. The Kobra Ensemble singing an intense Finnish traditional song. From the outset, it was clear this
wasn’t going to be any ordinary concert.
singer Saskia Voorbach said after the
been invited by one of the young profes-
ten specially for the occasion,’ Kobra
A young woman in the audience who had
performance. ‘Tonight was our first per-
sionals said, ‘The exchange between the
formance of the arrangement of Stromae’s “Tous les mêmes”, for example. We enjoyed every minute of that.’
audience was made up of members of the
ensembles performed back to back, but
orchestra was a real crowd-pleaser. The
At the beginning of the evening, the two
business community – including two new
eventually took to the stage together in
The Sound of Leadership programme.
WRITTEN SPECIALLY FOR THE OCCASION The quintet, featuring clarinettist Hein Wiedijk, violinists Jelena Ristic and Chris-
tian van Eggelen, violist Roland Krämer and cellist Julia Tom, performed works including an accessible Vaughan Wil-
What an atmosphere of openness!’
DYNAMIC
LEIDSEPLEIN
professionals concluding their last day of
We felt lifted up by the instrumentalists.
‘Some of the arrangements were writ-
quintet consisting of musicians from the
sponsors, CBRE and Arcadis – and young
the ensemble from the orchestra, it felt
arrangements of music by Béla Bartók and Leonard Bernstein, as well as the encore ‘Als op het Leidseplein de lichtjes weer
eens branden gaan’ (When the Lights at
Leidseplein Shine Again), a song popular during the occupation of the Netherlands in the Second World War. Needless to say,
it wasn’t exactly a sampling of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s standard fare.
ONE BIG CELEBRATION ‘For us, too, it was a new experience,’ sin-
gers Lea Klarenbeek and Saskia Voorbach said, ‘even though we’re used to pushing the boundaries. We found it all very moving – after all, it’s music about love, Am-
sterdam… Programming this evening’s concert, we deliberately chose a more folk-like dimension, and it worked well. 1
instrumentalists and the singers was brilliant. It made the concert so dynamic. I’ve
personally never attended a Salon event
before. Earlier I thought, “Listening to classical music after a long, hard day at
the office… Won’t I fall asleep?” But this was fantastic. I’d just never experienced anything like it before.’