Dutch Queen checks out new Concertgebouw chief
OrchestrasMessage received:
Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands and Her Royal Highness, Princess Beatrix will be visiting a concert given by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the baton of its new artistic partner, Klaus Mäkelä, on Friday, 25 November. Queen Máxima is patron of the orchestra.
Mäkelä will conduct Sibelius’s Fourth Symphony, followed by Mozart’s Requiem featuring the Netherlands Chamber Choir, soprano Sabine Devieilhe, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, tenor Julian Prégardien, and baritone Benjamin Appl. These concerts mark the Concertgebouw Orchestra debuts of Devieilhe, Prégardien and Appl.
After the concert, Her Majesty and Her Royal Highness will meet Klaus Mäkelä for the first time.
I had picked up somewhere in the past the the Concertgebouw symphony didn’t like Sibelius. Looks like time has changed for the better if my memory was correct on this.
It’s true that the RCO never did a complete cycle of all the Sibelius symphonies in record. And it’s a shame! But there’s this legendary record of the 2nd by Szell in the 60’s. The one with the bird on the cover. Last year the RCO did a complet Sibelius concert with Rouvali it was the 6th and the 7th.
The King is staying home to watch football, I presume.
My goodness, but the royalty picked a fantastic concert to attend! I’m not sure my heart could take so much excitement with Sibelius 4 and Mozart/Sussmayr’s Requiem!
The Concertgebouw take their royal patron very seriously.
I was once at a concert in Paris in which the start was delayed by the arrival of the Princess with the French cultural minister who were received with boos for delaying the concert (the French don’t look too kindly on royal heads, ahem), although the booing was clearly for the French cultural minister and not the Dutch princess, but you could see the unease in the orchestra members.
So, what did the Concertgebouw do to retaliate against the French audience?
They refused to play an encore, which is de rigueur for visiting orchestras and in front of the royal patron.
So, don’t boo in the presence of Her Most Highest of High Royal Highness and the Concertgebouw … if you want an encore.