Classical Music

Rhythmix is a musical live show for young (8+) and old that you absolutely must see. In this musical journey, the four enthusiastic percussionists of Percossa and the musicians of Philzuid will take you through the extremes of what a large symphony orchestra can do: from agonizingly slow to impossibly fast and virtuosic, from blazing flamenco to subdued classical.

Five stars - the highest possible - the Volkskrant stuck on Lahav Shani's Mahler 2 with his Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Last season, the orchestra was also unforgettable in Muziekgebouw Eindhoven. '...then you notice how effective Shani's dynamics are, and how sublimely the giant RPhO reacts to him,' wrote the reviewer, duly impressed by this experience. On the cusp of this Bruckner year 2024 (Bruckner was born 200 years ago), we celebrate this 'composer of monumental buildings' together with Shani and his Rotterdammers.

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

"Like God throwing mosaic pieces from the sky, and I only have to fit them together," wrote composer Jean Sibelius in his diary. In his magnificent Fifth Symphony, you experience the pristine Finnish nature in all its mystical beauty. White sunlight breaking through greyish clouds, melancholic singing of departing cranes.

Netherlands' most famous classical artist? Holland's greatest artiste as well? Anyway, violinist Janine Jansen is at the top of the world. She fills concert halls everywhere with her passionate playing. Today, her musical partner is Denis Kozukhin. Since his victory in 2010 at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, he has been making a world career. In the past few years, the two have found each other in chamber music. And there they discovered Brahms, Schumann and other great composers. 

Scusa!! Sorry, Claudio Monteverdi wrote to a friend on December 29, 1616, apologizing for his long silence. 'There was so much work to be done for Christmas,' he explained. As maestro di cappella of the famous San Marco in Venice, he was always incredibly busy during December composing for the evening service. It was so busy that music by other composers was also performed. La Cetra recreates such a Christmas Eve in Venice, featuring music by Monteverdi and his colleagues. For these Venetian Vespers, Andrea Marcon carefully selected the finest sections from Monteverdi's Selva Morale e Spirituale, supplemented with works by composers like Gabrieli and Grandi. 'Completely irresistible and uplifting,' as described by The Times.

When Bryce Dessner's latest Piano Concerto is performed by star pianist Alice Sara Ott, something special is about to happen. Dessner, an American composer based in Paris, has won Gramophone awards for his 'classical' compositions as well as for his guitar work with his rock band, The National. Philzuid commissioned this Piano Concerto specifically for Alice Sara Ott ("dazzling, unstoppable," The Guardian).

"Love for singing together, a good ear, and the ability to enjoy a good game of football. With those qualities, you're welcome to audition," the website of the Vienna Boys' Choir says. After seven years of absence, they are returning to the Netherlands, and of course they won't skip Eindhoven. The Vienna Boys' Choir is one of the oldest and most famous choirs in the world. As the weather gets colder outside, inside the boys from Vienna will be performing a delightful Christmas concert. With their angelic voices, they bring a golden glow to a diverse selection of choral music, from 16th-century songs to Britten's beloved A Ceremony of Carols, and from all-time favorites like Winter Wonderland to traditional Christmas carols.

Slowly plucking, the strings create a hesitant pizzicato colored by small clarinet clouds, and then, rising above it all, that infinitely tender violin melody. It gives you goosebumps. The Andante from Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful pieces in the violin repertoire. Is it the nostalgia? It was one of the last works the Russian composer wrote in America. In this concert, it is performed by Alexandra Conunova.

Not only was this Luxembourg cellist successful in Bucharest, at the George Enescu Competition:  earlier, he was a prize winner of the Pablo Casals Award in Spain and the Gabrieli Competition in Berlin (second prize). Let's not forget that in 2022 he won both the first prize, the audience award and the prize for best interpretation of a compulsory work at the Cello Biennale in Amsterdam. So young, and already so successful. Two beautiful Russian cello sonatas adorn his program.

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.

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.

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.

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.