Concertgebouw

On Monday I had the most enjoyable evening in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. I have never seen such a big orchestra. This is the programme before the interval:

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

Overture from 'Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen'(1842)

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

Der Tanz der sieben Schleier from 'Salome', opus 54 (1903-05)

These compositions used the complete range of instruments, apparently all the brass, percussion and wind instruments. Especially Strauss reminded me of one of his opera's, which I went to see many years ago, when we were having a very difficult time, "Die Frau ohne Schatten". A kind of little impish ghost hovered over the stage with regular intervals accompanied by a haunting theme. I think it was the woman's shadow which was escaping her all the time, but I am not sure. One of the themes in the Strauss composition reminded me of this particular theme which had the same kind of eerie feel to it. At that time we walked out and left during the interval, because we did not feel well. The opera was a long one, so we had had a good taste of what the rest was going to be. No catching choruses, melodies, lyrics, aria's or themes, but more of the same difficult to understand music – difficult because we were tired and upset and there was no real theme. 'The Dance of the Seven Veils' is a much more interesting composition, which I enjoyed a lot.

         Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) (Dutch spelling: Sjostakovitsj), Symphony number eight, takes a full hour and ten minutes! It is a wonderful experience, as it shows extremes of beautiful lyrical parts, which are pianissimo, or even ppp, and the most deafening full orchestra parts, the brass - two tuba's,  quite a number of trombones and trumpets - , blowing away and getting rather red in the face, their cheeks pumping in and out like mad. Any variety of percussion one can think of, cymbals, chimes, drums, a triangle, a Glockenspiel, a xylophone, timpani, you name it. The pianissimo parts were wonderful. People were on the edge of their seats and no sound apart from the music could be heard. As if people had stopped breathing. The loud parts were exciting to see, the frantic but nevertheless controlled movements of the musicians, the concentration. Unfortunately I found it almost ear-splitting. Too many decibels. I understand why musicians in an orchestra get hearing problems. The violinists were almost blasted away by the brass. Since I lost hearing in one ear last year as a result of a nasty virus infection, loud music unfortunately becomes just loud noise. So although fascinating to see everybody working with so much concentration, I just escaped an instant migraine attack. Perhaps I was not the only one, because I noticed the woman next to me covering her ears with her hands! She did it very unobtrusively not wishing to offend the musicians should any of them notice!

But it was worth it. The acoustics in the Concertgebouw are fabulous and not comparable to any other Dutch concert hall. And the conductor , Andris Nelsons, really was a treat. He danced around, in peril of falling off his podium, and his face was so expressive. He also managed to keep the audience totally silent for a long time after each composition and each part of the symphony. Everybody seemed spellbound.

Nelsons conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker. This is the beginning of the symphony. The complete symphony can be heard via the website of the, Berliner Philharmoniker. They have their own site, the Digital Concert Hall, with recordings of their concerts, interviews with musicians, samples of the music, a full programme and many other issues interesting to music lovers. For a monthly fee one can enjoy their concerts digitally without having to go out.