Classical Music

No Christmas without the Christmas Oratorio. The Netherlands Bach Society also celebrates the birth of Jesus with this magnificent work. Lars Ulrik Mortensen – artistic director of Concerto Copenhagen - leads the ensemble from the organ and performs cantatas 1, 4, 5, and 6 of the Christmas Oratorio. From the very first notes – the characteristic timpani strokes of cantata 1 – the Christmas celebration begins: "Jauchzet, frohlocket, auf, preiset die Tage!". And with Mortensen's flamboyant and extravert conducting, the party is complete.

Connie Palmen has a thing for the number seven. Her debut novel, "The Laws," had seven chapters, and now, especially for Scherpdenkers, she crafts a text around seven characters within the theme of 'metamorphoses'. The friend becomes a traitor, the angel turns into a devil, the woman becomes a poet, the fan turns into a murderer, love turns into hate, admiration into humiliation. Amsterdam Sinfonietta plays Richard Strauss's poignant Metamorphosen with an ensemble of... seven string players.

Let the cork pop from the champagne bottle and toast to the New Year! When you think of a New Year's concert, you immediately think of Viennese waltzes. And when you mention Viennese waltzes, you think of Johann Strauss Jr.! 2025 happens to be the 200th anniversary of the Waltz King's birth. This New Year's concert by Philzuid is the perfect way to kick off the new year.

Behind the pages of music encyclopedias lie thousands of unknown muses and female musicians who inspired composers to create magnificent works. In Renaissance Ferrara, the duke deliberately kept the songs of his 'Concerto delle donne' from the printing presses. Vivaldi's Ospedali women performed for the public - but entered music history anonymously, just like the singers for whom French greats like Boësset and Clérambault tailored their compositions. Sébastien Daucé cracks open the vault in which these gems have remained hidden for centuries.

Masato Suzuki was steeped in Bach's music from an early age. The Japanese conductor and harpsichordist was born in The Hague, where his father, Masaaki, studied with Bach expert Ton Koopman. "At home, the dinner table conversations always revolved around Bach," he said. Father Masaaki became renowned for his work with the Bach Collegium Japan.

2025 is the year to commemorate a great composer: Dmitri Dmitry Shostakovich. He died exactly 50 years ago, making this the perfect time for a splendid project. The three sonatas he wrote for string instruments in one concerto - for violin, viola and cello. With Evgeny Kissin behind the piano, we have perhaps the best pianist in the world. He gathered three top musicians around him to add lustre to Shostakovich's sonatas. This is how to start a Shostakovich year!

Do the best come from the East? Cellist Maja Bogdanović was born in Serbia and pianist Anna Fedorova in Ukraine. Both are top musicians: 'Cellist Maja Bogdanović is truly something special: a genuine, inspired artist with a fearless expressive sound who has much to say but is never pretentious' (New York Concert Review), 'inexhaustible, sensitive, poetic, and tasteful,' wrote Gramophone Magazine about Fedorova. They will perform two beautiful cello sonatas, among which Gabriel Fauré's is rarely heard.

"If nothing sings in you, you cannot make music," says Leonard Bernstein in "Maestro," the recent, moving film about his life. Nearly everyone knows Bernstein from his musical "West Side Story" with popular songs like "Maria" and "I Feel Pretty." But Bernstein also had another side. For his monumental Second Symphony for piano and orchestra, 'The Age of Anxiety,' he was inspired by a text by W.H. Auden.

What does Ravel have to do with DNA modification? What does Saint-Saëns have to do with animal rights? What initially seems incompatible turns out to be connected upon closer inspection. Spraakmakers is a traveling concert series that combines classical music with contemporary stories. Spraakmakers links the voices of renowned actors Ellen ten Damme, Soumaya Ahouaoui, and Lars Brinkman with the music of top Dutch ensembles. Together, they weave provocative stories about today's world and corresponding classical music pieces into one new narrative. Simultaneously narrated and performed, like a theatrical musical story. Flemish theater maker Lucas De Man is the flamboyant host, leading the audience through an evening full of surprises. Spraakmakers is for anyone seeking the story and meaning within classical music.

"As a pilot, I don't have everything under control. I can manage my instruments and nerves, but not the weather. As a conductor, I have control over my own knowledge and musical feeling, but not over the musicians, whom I must trust," conductor (and amateur aviator) Dima Slobodeniouk said in an interview. It's going to be just fine with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Loyal attendees know: when that renowned English orchestra lands on the stage of Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, something special is about to happen. This fantastic group of musicians delivers top-notch orchestral performance every time.

There will be a free introduction at 7:30 PM, co-sponsored by the Friends of Muziekgebouw Eindhoven.

Are we disconnected from nature or are we connected to it? Great artists pose big questions, even in music. Composer and conductor Gregor Mayrhofer wondered how he could reuse discarded objects. His Recycling Concerto became a breathtaking concert for "anything else that would end up in the trash" and orchestra.

"Imagine: you go to a restaurant, you know the chef, but there's no menu," said András Schiff. With a somewhat shy voice and endearing Hungarian accent, he addressed his audience in London. After the corona lockdowns, the seventy-one-year-old pianist felt it was time for a new approach. Because how could he know a year and a half in advance what he wanted to play on that one evening? Since then, he has been inspired by the moment. So, what you hear is a surprise.

After his monumental Seventh and Eighth symphonies, Shostakovich’s Ninth in 1945 was supposed ot h the triumphant conclusion of his three ‘war symphonies’. A paean to victory and Soviet heroism. However, at the premiere, a much shorter, satirical work was heard. Stalin reacted with dismay. From the bold gallop with a touch of slapstick ot he ink-black melancholy in the poignant bassoon solos, the Ninth is typical Shostakovich.

'Four top players with effervescent energy, they grasp you from the very first note! [...] The great promise of the Dutch string quartets.' What is it about? About the Animato Quartet, which won the audience award of Dutch Classical Talent in 2022 and the Kammermusikpreis Kultur Gut Hasselburg in '23. It is only recently, that it also won the most important Dutch prize for classical chamber music talent: the Anton Kersjes Prize. The jury concluded: 'Layered, intense playing with a broad palette of colors.'

After the concert
After the concert, we will serve a cup of coffee or tea with a delicious treat. This is included with your ticket.

Netherlands' most famous composition? Heard more often than the Wilhelmus? It could very well be. The intoxicating Canto Ostinato by Simeon ten Holt is unbelievably frequently performed. Perhaps it helps that it can be performed on a variety of different instruments. It can sound beautiful on keyboard and wind instruments as well. Especially when performed by organist Aart Bergwerff and trumpeter Eric Vloeimans.

Dizzying runs, a tenderly floating violin melody, pounding rhythms. But what am I even hearing? How did Vivaldi manage it? Maestro and 'stand-up' conductor Jules van Hessen is your guide into the sometimes impenetrable world of classical music. Conducting and narrating, from the conductor's stand and in between orchestra members, Maestro Jules delves into the enchanting music of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. In this way, he makes all music attractive and understandable for everyone!

Put the two greatest geniuses from England around 1600 together: the result is something extraordinary. Henry Purcell and William Shakespeare; the former composed The Fairy Queen, a semi-opera based on Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. According to many, it is Purcell's finest opera. Isaline Claeys' staging is populated by shadow puppets; scenographer Emilie Lauwers and videographer Mário Melo Costa complete the enchantment of this Baroque highlight with fanciful images.

Pieter van Loenen, Dana Zemtsov, Laura van der Heijden, and Alexander Ullman: how many young top talents can fit into one ensemble? Four musicians, each with a stunning solo career you may have heard individually, now come together in chamber music. Mozart's Piano Quartet in E-flat, KV493, is a piece almost too grand for chamber music; the work of the Frenchman Chausson is less known but truly deserves more frequent performances.

Enjoying music, show, and spectacle. With a smile on your face and a tear in your eye. That's the prelude of Philcarnavalesk to the crazy carnival days. With a swinging symphony orchestra in top form and engaging soloists in a program featuring beautiful numbers, humor, and all in a visual spectacle. Classic all-time favorites and symphonic highlights ensure a celebration of recognition. And feel free to dress up, then the evening can't get any better!

We don't hear her as often nowadays; her performances have become relatively rare. So when she does perform, Maria João Pires, the petite and slender Portuguese pianist with the elegant sound, graces the stage. Or as the Penguin Guide wrote about her complete set of Mozart's piano sonatas (she's performing one now too): "Maria Joao Pires is a stylist and an excellent Mozartian. She is always refined, but never lacks classical feeling, and possesses a vital imagination. She strikes an ideal balance between evenness and expressive sensitivity, conveying a sense of spontaneity in everything she does."

"The performance stood out for its pure clarity. The way she transitioned from one note to the next was so beautifully executed that it seemed like a seamless silk thread." Opera Today was at a loss for words to praise Miah Persson in her performance of Strauss' Four Last Songs. For her concert in Eindhoven, she is in good hands: Sir Mark Elder has conducted in all major opera houses and knows better than anyone else how to make great singers shine. Since 2022, he has been the Principal Guest Conductor of the renowned Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the oldest orchestras in the world.

There will be a free introduction at 7:30 PM, co-sponsored by the Friends of Muziekgebouw Eindhoven.