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rpho

Jolanda Spoel seamlessly forges hip-hop and classical together in Melomaniac. And that is quite difficult

by Wijbrand Schaap
7 October 202130 March 2022
1 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, DANS, Featured, MUSIC, PODCAST, PODIUM ART, SPONSORED

'They come from two worlds, but work together towards something that is one. Jolanda Spoel has done that perfectly'. Katinka Reinders, head of education at the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, is enthusiastic after one of the first play-in performances of Melomaniac at Maas Theatre & Dance. Just now, a room full of somewhat timid secondary school students turned into a churning group of lovers of...

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Rotterdam's Gergiev Festival delivers a brand new masterpiece

by one of our members
13 September 2015
4 min read
MUSIC

'Rachmaninov's melodic gift is impressive and makes the composer very popular'. This is how Valery Gergiev pithily sums up the quality of Rachmaninov's music. The Gergiev Festival that centred around this composer this weekend emphatically sticks to the popular works: the piano concertos and symphonies . Yet it omits many compositions that could have given these works more framework....

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Where did Rachmaninov's success come from?

by one of our members
9 September 201527 January 2019
5 min read
MUSIC

Actually, Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) was a bit of an oddity, an anachronism. He bit into the composition style of his great example Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who died in 1893. When contrasting Rachmaninov with some of his contemporaries (Dmitri Shostakowich, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Strawinsky and overseas Charles Ives, George Antheil and Edgard Varèse), it is only right to notice...

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Gergiev Festival full of Sunday afternoon music

by one of our members
16 September 201229 March 2022
4 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

What could be the matter with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival - the official name to emphasise its international appeal anyway? As soon as you enter concert hall de Doelen, you immediately get the feeling that you have arrived at an ordinary, weekday concert, even though Valeri Gergiev is on the posters. No decoration of the large rooms...

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Superbly performed opera by Rimsky Korsakoff provisional highlight of changeable opening weekend Gergiev Festival

by one of our members
13 September 201130 March 2022
4 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

"My commitment to the city (Rotterdam) and the orchestra knows no end," Valeri Gergyev spoke on the occasion of the Gergyev Festival taking place in Rotterdam this week. This is good news, as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the former principal conductor still get along well. And to be backed by this global top-five conductor is...

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Rutteleaks 4 on orchestras: 'Mergers Brabants Orkest and Limburg Symphony Orchestra, Gelders Orkest and Orkest v.h. Oosten, Residentie Orkest and RphO'

by one of our members
7 March 20118 July 2016
3 min read
ACTUAL

Of course we are being horribly abused. By the coughing chain-smoker with his trench coat in that Hague car park. Is there a bigger plan behind it. Which again we know nothing about, but which will become clear on 23 May. So be it. Until then, we can do nothing but slavishly write down what the coughing oracle coughs at us. Well: We already knew that...

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Superior played-in recordings are no guarantee of delivering a reference CD

by one of our members
24 February 201130 March 2022
5 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra currently has an unprecedented luxury: it is releasing CDs on two labels at the same time. How is that possible? The orchestra signed under its own name with BIS Records, the label with which the eccentric owner Von Bahr releases one extraordinary recording after another, while chief conductor Yannick Néze-Séguin is old-fashionedly under contract as maestro with EMI....

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Yannick spurs his orchestra to a memorable and historic performance of Prokofiev's fifth symphony

by one of our members
12 February 201129 March 2022
4 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra is rated differently by conductors. Either you can get along with it and then it's a party, or it never becomes anything and then it stays at the occasional conducting session. Moreover, the musicians' enormous responsiveness is feared.

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Liszt's music is too important to ignore

by one of our members
30 January 201129 March 2022
4 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Fransz Litszt, born in 1811, explored every nook and cranny of the piano in his work, trying to incorporate every conceivable technique. As this contemporary of Carl Czerny, Niccolo Paganini and Richard Wagner was born 200 years ago this year, so there is a Liszt year. The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra bit the bullet of that on Friday 28 January,...

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Conductor Ono does not stand with his boots in the blubber and therefore does not go home with a passing grade

by one of our members
14 November 20108 July 2016
5 min read
ACTUAL

Rotterdam - That every disadvantage 'hep' its advantage is often apparent with symphony orchestras. A principal conductor, for instance, is usually in charge of his own orchestra for no more than about 12 weeks a year. He divides the rest of his time among the other orchestras he is also already chief of. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, for instance, is now not only principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic...

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RPhO's gift to the resurrected city falls short at opening Gergiev festival

by one of our members
5 September 201029 March 2022
5 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

By Willem Jan Keizer

Rotterdam - The fifteenth edition of the Gergjev Festival officially kicked off Friday evening in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen in concert hall de Doelen with a concert by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Valeri Gergjev. Although the festival takes place at some 20 locations in the city - not only in de Doelen but also in the Laurenskerk, the conservatory, museum Boijmans van Beuningen and numerous other unexpected locations - the festival is virtually invisible in the city.

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The only governing party with a coherent vision on culture is the PVV, reports the Green Left at the Paradiso Debate.

by one of our members
29 August 201029 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Sound recording available to listen to here!

You will hear successively Axel Rüger, director of the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, responding to the assertion made by VVD member Mark Harbers that the art world is not entrepreneurial enough. This is followed by responses from former CDA culture spokesperson Nicolien van Vroonhoven (consistently called Nicolien van Vroemhoven by presenter Twan Huys) and former NNT actor Boris van der Ham, now culture spokesperson for D66.

Read More "The only governing party with a coherent vision on culture is the PVV, reports the Green Left at the Paradiso Debate.