Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra premieres Meander

Photo: © Guido Pijper

The last work of Rachmaninoff, the unbearable lightness of Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto and the enchanting world of Mathilde Wantenaar. The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra brings it together effortlessly.

New work by Wantenaar: Meander

Mathilde Wantenaar felt she wanted to write something that would flow. She ended up with the river. What fascinates her about it is the large more or less constant shape that meanders but shifts very slowly, while the water in the river flows endlessly. 'I felt inspired by the gradually increasing power of the current that eventually bursts in the meander breakthrough. That became the shape of the piece.'

Rachmaninoff's resounding biography

With his 1940 Symphonic Dances, Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote not only a resounding biography, but also a final work as anxious as it is carefree. Dies irae stands alongside jazz influences, quotations from his own work resound alongside wonderful new orchestrations. Mathilde Wantenaar's new work Meander is the perfect introduction to this wonderful work by the tormented Russian.

Shostakovich's jazzy swing

Dmitri Shostakovich also follows milder and more nimble paths than we are used to from the composer in his 1957 Second piano concerto. Only in the masterful Andante does he strike a more serious tone. Shostakovich composed the work as a graduation project for his son, who played it during his final piano exam. Especially the corner movements, which seem to be written for the piano phenomenon Yuja Wang, require.

Concerts

30 September, 20:15, De Doelen, Rotterdam

1 October, 20:15, De Doelen, Rotterdam

2 October, 14:15, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

3 October, 14:15, De Doelen, Rotterdam