CONCERTGEBOUW ORCHESTRA – APRIL 2021

MOZART: Piano Concerto No.24 with Víkingur Ólafsson
SCHUMANN: Symphony No.3 “Rhenish”

“After months of concert abstinence, music finally came back to the public in the Concertgebouw on Friday evening… It was difficult not to be moved when Paavo Järvi conducted the opening of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.24…”
Het Parool, Erik Voermans, 17 April 2021

“How many exclamation points are needed to describe the feeling to finally hear the splendor, richness and depth of the KCO (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra) sound again. Played with Beethovian seriousness, the opening bars of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.24 already caused goosebumps that raged to your head and toes.”
NRC Handeslblad, Rahul Gandolahage, 17 April 2021

“…Víkingur Ólafsson, who made his debut with the orchestra, grabbed his audience by the scruff of the neck… So did the almost forgotten sound sensations from Robert Schumann’s Third Symphony, that piece of romanticism from 1851. How beautiful, plucking double basses! How we missed them, throbbing horns and trombones! And oh yes, that’s how friendship buzzes between cellos and bassoons. In normal times we had speculated whether the Estonian-American guest conductor Paavo Järvi was on the list of dreamy chief conductors. He must be well suited to the orchestra that took him on tour to Taiwan and Japan in November 2019… Now it suffices: Järvi sent so much energy and poetry through Schumann that the audience thanked him with cheering, whistling and foot-drumming.”
Volkskrant, Guido van Oorschot, 17 April 2021 ★★★★★

“Järvi’s way with Schumann’s ‘Rhenish’ Symphony has long been invigorating… Playing with time, flexing Schumann’s phrases, bringing his syntax to life, can be a recipe for disaster. Not in Järvi’s hands. He’s a musician who conceives every gesture as an organic event, placed and breathing. Articulate music-making, economy at a premium, doing no more than necessary yet electric. Uplifting.”
Colinscolumn.com, Ates Orga,16 April 2021