Summer Concert 2022
conductor: Joost Geevers
Sun 19 June, 2022 3:00 p.m.
MCO, Hilversum
GSO with Mozart & Brahms in the Summer
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Brahms Symphony Nº1 in c-minor op 68
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Mozart Flute Concerto in G k.313
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Mirjam van der Maas, flute
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Mozart Overture Idomeneo k.366
Two of the greatest composers are on the programme for the GSO Summer Concert: W.A. Mozart and Johannes Brahms. This marks the closing of the 2021-22 season for the GSO, a season where we have finally, step-by-step been able to leave the pandemic behind.
The showpiece of this concert, Brahms' 1st Symphony, requires a large orchestra and players with plenty of stamina. Brahms had already been composing for years when he wrote this piece, and he spent about 10 years writing it. He was afraid he would never be able to compete with the successes of the Beethoven symphonies, but eventually he succeeded in writing four of these great symphonies for large symphony orchestra, thereby immortalising himself as well.
These symphonies are quite challenging for any orchestra, considering their length and the effort required of the players, but at the same time they are extremely rewarding to play. This 1st Symphony had been programmed for before the lockdown, but had to be postponed. The orchestra couldn't rehearse whilst maintaining compliance with the social distancing rules, but now the conductor as well as the players are delighted that that is behind us.
The two pieces by Mozart, played at the start of this programme , are about a century older. Mozart wrote his opera, "Idomeneo", when he was about 24 years old. The overture from the opera is a great introduction preceding his 1st Flute Concerto, which was written three years earlier. This concerto was written for the esteemed Dutch amateur flute player, Ferdinand Dejean, who had commissioned Mozart to write several "not-too-difficult" pieces for flute. In the end this 1st flute concerto turned out to be quite virtuosic, playable by only the best professional flute players! In the past, Mirjam van der Maas has performed the Poulenc Flute Concerto with the GSO, and now she is the soloist on Mozart's flute concerto.
... Philip Smet