Essentials

The Essentials series introduces you to the masterpieces you will be happy to know, performed by the world-famous Concertgebouw Orchestra and complete with a lively introduction by the incomparable Thomas Vanderveken. At Essentials we welcome a new generation of music lovers, and the concerts typically have a pleasant informal atmosphere.

Rachmaninoff

Rachmaninoff was living in the United States, torn from his Russian routes, when he composed the Symphonic Dances, reflecting on his youthful loves and exorcising his demons. With this piece, the composer took his revenge on his critics. Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances are modern and classical, worldly and spiritual, nostalgic and astonishingly vibrant. Veteran conductor Semyon Bychkov is another Russian who, like Rachmaninoff, left Russian at an early age for the freedom of the west. This conductor continues to have a unique flair for Russian repertoire. Banishing demons, celebrating life – this is precisely what Antonín Dvořák also accomplished in his Carnival Overture, with which Semyon Bychkov opens the concert.