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Jaap van Zweden to step in for Kirill Petrenko

Conductor Kirill Petrenko unfortunately has had to cancel his return as guest conductor with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra this week due to health reasons. The orchestra is very grateful that Jaap van Zweden has agreed to conduct the concerts on Thursday 22 and Friday 23 June at short notice.
Jaap van Zweden - image: Bert Hulselmans
Jaap van Zweden - image: Bert Hulselmans

Modified programme

Under the baton of Jaap van Zweden, the Concertgebouw Orchestra performs Shostakovich’s wayward Ninth and Tchaikovsky’s emotionally charged Sixth Symphony, “Pathétique”.

Tchaikovsky's “Pathétique”

Jaap van Zweden leads the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in two very personal symphonies. Pyotr Tchaikovsky probes the depths of the human soul in his Sixth Symphony. The subtitle “Pathétique” indicates its tragic character, which is particularly moving in the slowly fading final episode. Tchaikovsky himself considered the Sixth his best work, but died shortly after its completion. The “Pathétique” is widely regarded as the peak of Tchaikovsky's symphonic oeuvre.

Shostakovich's Ninth Symphony

Half a century later, in 1945, Shostakovich's Ninth Symphony (paired with Tchaikovsky's Fifth during its premiere) angered Stalin. Expected to deliver a grand paean to Soviet victory, Shostakovich surprised friend and foe with a burst of creative frenzy in the form of a short, small-scale and relatively light-hearted symphony. Many feared that the composer would be exiled to Siberia. In 1948 Shostakovich's music was banned; the Ninth was allowed to be performed in the Sovier Union again in 1955 – four years after the Dutch premiere by the Concertgebouw Orchestra under the baton of Otto Klemperer.