Highlights

Pianist Tamara Stefanovich is more than just a gifted virtuoso, she is above all a free-spirited musical thinker. She demonstrates this once again with this marathon around the classical piano genre par excellence, the sonata. No Beethoven, no ironclad repertoire and no well-trodden paths: Stefanovich instead makes an ardent plea for groundbreaking works from the early Baroque as well as from the 20th century. In three movements of an hour each, Bach is played alongside Busoni and Scarlatti alongside Skrjabin, each time with an introduction by Stefanovich herself. After successful performances at London’s Southbank Centre and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, she now brings her acclaimed programme to the Muziekgebouw, where she has been a cherished guest for over a decade.

In the first part of her Sonata Marathon, Stefanovich starts with the primordial father of the keyboard repertoire, Johann Sebastian Bach. His son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is also featured, as well as his Italian counterpart Domenico Scarlatti – known for his countless keyboard sonatas. Antonio Soler, the Spanish composing monk, studied with Scarlatti. The programme traverses a vast musical landscape. From the polished mastery of early 20th-century piano virtuoso Ferruccio Busoni, we encounter the audaciously innovative Charles Ives, whose dissonant Three-Page Sonata features subtle nods to Bach.

★★★★★ - 'A remarkable feat of sustained pianism' (The Guardian)
● ● ● ● ● - 'Aanrader' (NRC)

Pianist Tamara Stefanovich is more than just a gifted virtuoso, she is above all a free-spirited musical thinker. She demonstrates this once again with this marathon around the classical piano genre par excellence, the sonata. No Beethoven, no ironclad repertoire and no well-trodden paths: Stefanovich instead makes an ardent plea for groundbreaking works from the early Baroque as well as from the 20th century. In three movements of an hour each, Bach is played alongside Busoni and Scarlatti alongside Skrjabin, each time with an introduction by Stefanovich herself. After successful performances at London’s Southbank Centre and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, she now brings her acclaimed programme to the Muziekgebouw, where she has been a cherished guest for over a decade.

The second part of the Sonata Marathon marks a shift in focus, highlighting some titans of the 20th century. Béla Bartók wrote his percussive Piano Sonata in his ‘piano year’ 1926 for an ‘Imperial Bösendorfer’, a grand piano with extra bass notes. Hanns Eisler’s First Piano Sonata is noticeably influenced by his teacher Schönberg, while Paul Hindemith composed his Third Piano Sonata in 1936, not long before he fled Nazi Germany. They are joined by the great sonata master Domenico Scarlatti and the composing monk Antonio Soler, both from earlier times.

★★★★★ - 'A remarkable feat of sustained pianism' (The Guardian)
● ● ● ● ● - 'Aanrader' (NRC)

Pianist Tamara Stefanovich is more than just a gifted virtuoso, she is above all a free-spirited musical thinker. She demonstrates this once again with this marathon around the classical piano genre par excellence, the sonata. No Beethoven, no ironclad repertoire and no well-trodden paths: Stefanovich instead makes an ardent plea for groundbreaking works from the early Baroque as well as from the 20th century. In three movements of an hour each, Bach is played alongside Busoni and Scarlatti alongside Skrjabin, each time with an introduction by Stefanovich herself. After successful performances at London’s Southbank Centre and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, she now brings her acclaimed programme to the Muziekgebouw, where she has been a cherished guest for over a decade.

The looming shadow of 20th-century horrors has become reality in part three of the Sonata Marathon. Galina Ustvolskaya's Piano Sonata No. 6 (1988) is an unprecedented outburst of violence; the aggressive Piano Sonata No. 1 (1926) by her teacher Dmitri Shostakovich sounds in retrospect like an ominous harbinger. Aleksandr Skrjabin’s ‘Black Mass’ sonata serves as a virtuosic exploration of chromaticism, while Leos Janáček’s Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 is a furious outcry against the killing of a protester. At most, Domenico Scarlatti and Antonio Soler soften the blow of raw expressiveness that Tamara Stefanovich delivers in the final movement of her Marathon.

★★★★★ - 'A remarkable feat of sustained pianism' (The Guardian)
● ● ● ● ● - 'Aanrader' (NRC)

2024 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great music innovator Arnold Schoenberg. The New European Ensemble celebrates this with two of Schoenberg’s own works as well as a new composition by Martijn Padding. Padding associates Schönberg's music with various shades of gray but in Ma vie en couleurs he focuses on vibrant colors, giving meaning to red, blue, yellow, and purple. The NEuE will play Henk Guittart’s ensemble arrangement of the notoriously difficult Violin Concerto, with soloist Maria Milstein, who is a regular guest at the Muziekgebouw.

In 1933, following the Nazi regime’s rise to power, Schoenberg fled to America. There, in 1936, he composed his Violin Concerto. Like much of Schoenberg’s early American work, it sounds surprisingly tonal despite utilizing his well-known twelve-tone technique, which is characterized by the absence of a tonic. One of the first works that Schoenberg constructed entirely according to a twelve-tone row was the Serenade (1921-1923). Nice fact: the Serenade also happens to be the very first piece performed by the NEuE.

This concert will be broadcast live by NTR on NPO Klassiek

An unconventional, modern pop icon, Melike Şahin reimagines the present with a nod to Turkish psychedelia from the 1960s and 1970s. Euphoric guitars and organs blend with her contemporary singing on her debut album Merhem, a huge success in Turkey. She herself calls her style ‘Mediterranean Arabesque’, or a mix of Anatolian pop with all kinds of Middle Eastern styles.

With her single Diva Yorgun, Melike Şahin scored a big hit in her home country last summer; the song has been viewed over a hundred million times on YouTube. High time for the singer to conquer Europe. She has already proven that she can do this: as the frontwoman of the cult band BaBa ZuLa, she played all the major European festivals.

Please note: tickets for this concert are standing-room only.

Whilst all of the Netherlands is captivated by Bach’s St. Matthew Passion during Easter, Pynarello and the multi-talented Shishani—singer-songwriter, anthropologist, musicologist, and activist—present a modern take on the Passion. This unique musical collision merges the stunning sounds of Florence Price (1887–1953) and Shishani (1988). Price, the first African American woman to be recognized as a composer of symphonic works, fought racism and unequal opportunities. Her impressive body of work, consisting of more than 300 compositions, was rediscovered in 2009 in an abandoned holiday home. 

Today, her work resonates in dialogue with Shishani, a socially engaged artist with roots in Namibia, Belgium, and the Netherlands, known for their hit Minority. Rebel collective Pynarello brings this encounter to life with a compact ensemble, where vocals, percussion, and classical strings create a thrilling tension between Shishani’s rhythmically driven sound world—inspired by soul, pop, and African music—and Price’s romantic, captivating compositions.

Music as a highly exciting spatial experience: that is the monumental 1981 masterpiece Répons by French composer Pierre Boulez. With Répons, Boulez created a unique sound world in which the acoustic sounds of the musicians change and whirl through the hall thanks to the use of subtle electronics, which were revolutionary at the time. As such, different sound worlds glide over and through each other. Six soloists that are arranged around the ensemble lend an extra dimension to the movements in the music. A rare opportunity to experience this unique work live.

Outside the hall, In a Large Open Space by James Tenney (1934-2006) can be heard. Whereas Boulez has meticulously written down how Répons should be played, the American Tenney gives the musicians great freedom in his long-toned works. By moving around in the space, the audience hears changes and shifts in the soundscape. An acoustic trip like no other.

This concert is a co-production of Muziekcentrum De Bijloke and Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ

The uncompromising innovator Pierre Boulez is heard in Structures for two pianos: steely music with the raw energy of a young rebel. Scherzo, an unpublished work that Boulez wrote when he was just 19, introduced by Ralph van Raat in 2023, is also full of energy. Courtes dérives à partir d’éclat is totally different. A mysterious play of colours without a strict structure, in which it is all about pure tonal beauty, just like in Morton Feldman’s enigmatically floating Two Pianos.

Ralph van Raat is a renowned expert on Boulez. In 2023, he performed a recital at the Muziekgebouw entirely devoted to the composer, featuring several unpublished works that Van Raat found in archives. Boulez composed Courtes dérives à partir d’éclat as a wedding gift for Grammy Award winner Gloria Cheng, as a token of their special bond.