Rouvali conducts Shostakovich with the Concertgebouw Orchestra

Santtu-Matias Rouvali & Shostakovich

Santtu-Matias Rouvali has performed with the Concertgebouw Orchestra several times with great success. He returns with a kaleidoscope program that does not shy away from the Big Questions - with an important role for percussion. Dmitri Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphony is perhaps the most enigmatic symphony of the twentieth century. The composer searches for his (and our) relation to the musical past: he quotes predecessors such as Rossini and Wagner, but also himself. Those quotes raise deep musical-philosophical questions: where does it all come from, how far have we come, and where should it all go? The bare, mortifying ending is one of the most poignant passages in the symphonic repertoire, written when the 65-year-old heart patient Shostakovich knew his end was near.

Morricone & Thorvaldsdottir

A unique role in the symphony is reserved for the extensive percussion section. That promises something for the performance led by Santtu-Matias Rouvali, originally a percussionist himself. Speaking of percussion: in Ennio Morricone's trumpet concerto Ut, Omar Tomasoni's virtuoso trumpet part is supported by timpani. The Icelandic Anna Thorvaldsdottir uses alien sounds to explore what it would be like to fall into a black hole - into the unknown.