Programme notes | Romeo & Juliet

PROGRAMME

conductor Valentin Uryupin piano Seong-Jin Cho

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, K. 217 ‘Jeunehomme’ (1777)

• Allegro

• Andantino

• Rondo: presto

intermission

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

Suite from Romeo and Juliet (1935/1940):

• Montagues and Capulets (The Prince Gives His Order – Dance of the Knights)

• Scene (The Street Awakens)

• Juliet as a Young Girl

• Minuet (The Arrival of the Guests)

• Masks

• Romeo and Juliet (Balcony Scene – Love Dance)

• Death of Tybalt

• Romeo and Juliet Before Parting

• The Nurse

• Friar Laurence

• Romeo at Juliet’s Tomb

• The Death of Juliet

Concert ends at around 22.15

Most recent performances by our orchestra:

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 9: Mar 2024, piano

Daniil Trifonov, conductor Lahav Shani (on tour)

Prokofiev Romeo and Julia (suite): Sep 2023, conductor Lahav Shani

One hour before the start of the concert, Emanuel Overbeeke will give an introduction (in Dutch) to the programme, admission €5. Tickets are available at the hall, payment by debit card. The introduction is free for Vrienden.

Cover: Photo Patrick Hendry (Unsplashed).

Illustration: omeo and Juliet: balcony scene. Engraving by Richard Rhodes (1815) after an illustration by John Thurston. Coll. The British MuseumBritish Museum

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as Knight of the Golden Spur. Anonymous copy (1777) of a portrait by Padre Martini. Coll. Music Museum Bologna

Drama for the concert hall

A seemingly innocuous piano concerto by Mozart as a prelude to Prokofiev’s forbidding yet uplifting ballet music based on the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet: that is not as strange as it might seem.

Along with Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a great example for Sergei Prokofiev, who showed in his First Symphony that he had a good command of their classical style. And like Prokofiev, Mozart enjoyed adding drama to his music, as is the case with his Piano Concerto in E flat major K. 271. You can interpret the dialogue between piano and orchestra in that concerto as a friendly mirror image of ‘Montagues and Capulets’ from Prokofiev’s ballet music to Romeo and Juliet, in which we hear the fateful rivalry between two noble families.

Wolfgang and Victoire

Although, when compared with Prokofiev’s brutal sounds, Mozart’s refined music seems to emanate from another universe, the young composer was definitely ahead of his time in the way in which he juxtaposed the piano and the orchestra. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major K. 271, written in 1777, can be

seen as the transition from his early works to full maturity. It was believed for many years that Mozart had dedicated the concerto to a French pianist, about whom nothing was known other than that her name was Jeunehomme – so that is the name by which this concerto became known. In 2004 the Viennese musicologist Michael Lorenz found out the real story. Mozart did not write his concerto for someone called Jeunehomme, but for Victoire Jenamy, daughter of the dancer and choreographer Jean Georges Noverre, who was a good friend of the Mozart family. In a letter to his father dating from September 1778 Mozart refers to the work as the ‘concerto for Jenomy’. Although Victoire Jenamy was not a professional pianist, Mozart admired her playing enormously and gave her the longest, best and most adventurous piano concerto he had so far composed. Without waiting for the customary orchestral introduction, the soloist begins a sparkling dialogue with the orchestra after only a few notes. This pattern is repeated throughout the first movement: the orchestra starts and the piano responds. Only once, shortly before the reprise, does Mozart reverse the order. In the introspective second movement Mozart introduces the instrumental recitative. In their comprehensive biography from the 1920s

Teodor Wyzewa and Georges de Saint-Foix aptly compared this movement to a ‘tragic recitative from an opera by Gluck’. The final movement is a brilliant rondo that is full of novelty. Although the layout appears simplea theme, introduced by the soloist, that recurs regularly and is interspersed with episodes made up of other material - Mozart included a number of surprises. The biggest is probably the third episode, in which a genuine minuet pops up, as if Mozart wanted to slot in a complete extra movement with a contrasting mood and tempo. Youthful swagger or a sign of maturity? In any event, this is the first of Mozart’s major piano concertos.

Youthful swagger or a sign of maturity? In any event, this is the first of Mozart’s major piano concertos.

Romeo and Juliet

Having fled his fatherland during the Russian Revolution, Sergei Prokofiev turned into a real cosmopolitan with a style of his own that was worlds away from that of 19th-century Russian music. He lived and worked for a while in the USA, then spent some time in Paris and in various other places in Europe, but in 1936 – to the amazement of many – he returned to Russia. In hindsight, you could say that he had already announced his return in his music – for instance in Romeo and Juliet (1935), a ballet based on Shakespeare’s wellknown eponymous play: as well as a classical, Mozartian grasp of form and a French-style treatment of the orchestra, the Russian

soul is never very far away in this score. The simplicity of the melodies, the upbeat rhythms, the harmonies that emerge from the orchestra like whipcracks – these are all elements prevalent in Russian folk music. In addition, in Romeo and Juliet Prokofiev aligns with the strong Russian ballet tradition. But even though nowadays it is far and away the most popular 20th-century ballet music, Prokofiev had to fight to get his score accepted in the Russia of the 1930s. The Kirov Ballet, which had commissioned him to write a full-length ballet of his choice, rejected Prokofiev’s proposal of a work based on Romeo and Juliet. The composer then offered his ballet to the Bolshoi Theatre, initially with success, but on further reflection the score was declared ‘undanceable’. So that the music could at least be played in the concert hall, in 1936 Prokofiev condensed fragments from the score into two symphonic suites, adding a third ten years later.

In the end, the complete ballet was premiered in 1938 in Brno, Czechoslovakia. It was such a success that the Kirov Ballet soon added the work to its repertoire and gave its Russian premiere in 1940. As well as the ballet itself, the orchestral suites became popular too. Over the years, many orchestras have made their own compilations based on the three suites. And that is the case today. The ballet, which lasts two and a half hours and has four acts and nine scenes, can be heard in a version that encapsulates the story of the ill-fated love of Romeo and Juliet by combining parts of the suites chronologically. Thanks to the visual power of Prokofiev’s music the story can therefore be followed easily, even by those who are not familiar with its dramatic content.

Paul Janssen

Seong-Jin Cho • piano

Born: Seoul, South Korea

Education: first piano lessons at age six, study with Michel Béroff at the Conservatoire National Supérieur, Paris, and under the mentorship of Alfred Brendel

Awards: Hamamatsu International Piano Competition 2009 (as youngest winner ever), International Tchaikovsky Competition, 2011

Breakthrough: 2015: First Prize in the International Chopin Competition, Warsaw

Solo appearances: Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin, Orchestre de Paris, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra

Solo recitals: Carnegie Hall New York, Philharmonie Berlin, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Suntory Hall Tokyo, festivals of La Roque d’Anthéron, Verbier, Gstaad Debut Rotterdam Philharmonic: 2021

Valentin Uryupin • conductor

Born: Lozova, Ukraine

Education: clarinet and conducting at the Moscow State Conservatory with Evgeny Petrov and Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, masterclass with Kurt Masur, assistantships with Vladimir Jurowski, Valery Gergiev, Teodor Currentzis

Awards: Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition 2016 (Third Prize)

Breakthrough: 2017, winner Sir Georg Solti Conducting Competition, Frankfurt

Subsequently: guest appearances with Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, SWR Symphonieorchester, Netherlands

Philharmonic Orchestra, New Japan

Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra; Chief Conductor Rostov Symphony Orchestra (2015–2021) and Novaya Opera Moscow (2021–2022); opera with the State Operas of Berlin, Hanover, Stuttgart, Teatro Real Madrid, Athens Opera, Bregenz Festival

Debut Rotterdam Philharmonic: 2024

Photo: Daniil Rabovsky

Photo: Christoph Köstlin

Agenda

Fri 5 April 2024 • 20.15

Sun 7 April 2024 • 14.15

conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste violin Johan Dalene

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto

Bruckner Symphony No. 7

Proms: Spring Is In The Air

Fri 19 April 2024 • 20.30

leader Marieke Blankestijn violin Kira van der Woerd

Vivaldi The Four Seasons: Spring

Pachelbel Canon and Gigue

Handel Concerto Grosso Op.6

No.4

Bach Air from Suite No. 3

Vivaldi The Four Seasons: Summer

Fri 26 April 2024 • 18.00

conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Siegmund Stanislas de Barbeyrac

Sieglinde

Elza van den Heever

Hunding Soloman Howard

Wotan Brian Mulligan

Brünnhilde Tamara Wilson

Fricka Karen Cargill

Wagner Die Walküre

Thu 2 May 2024 • 20.15

conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin violin Randall Goosby

Dvořák Overture Carnival

Price Violin Concerto No. 2

Price Adoration

Brahms Symphony No. 4

Musicians

Chief Conductor

Lahav Shani

Honorary Conductor

Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Principal Guest Conductor

Tarmo Peltokoski

First Violin

Marieke Blankestijn, concertmeester

Quirine Scheffers

Hed Yaron Meyerson

Saskia Otto

Arno Bons

Mireille van der Wart

Rachel Browne

Maria Dingjan

Marie-José Schrijner

Noëmi Bodden

Petra Visser

Sophia Torrenga

Hadewijch Hofland

Annerien Stuker

Alexandra van

Beveren

Second Violin

Charlotte Potgieter

Cecilia Ziano

Frank de Groot

Laurens van Vliet

Tomoko Hara

Elina Staphorsius

Jun Yi Dou

Bob Bruyn

Eefje Habraken

Maija Reinikainen

Wim Ruitenbeek

Babette van den Berg

Melanie Broers

Lana Trimmer

Viola

Anne Huser

Roman Spitzer

Galahad Samson

José Moura Nunes

Kerstin Bonk

Lex Prummel

Janine Baller

Francis Saunders

Veronika Lénártová

Rosalinde Kluck

León van den Berg

Olfje van der Klein

Cello

Emanuele Silvestri

Eugene Lifschitz

Joanna Pachucka

Daniel Petrovitsch

Mario Rio

Gé van Leeuwen

Eelco Beinema

Carla Schrijner

Pepijn Meeuws

Yi-Ting Fang

Double Bass

Matthew Midgley

Ying Lai Green

Jonathan Focquaert

Robert Franenberg

Harke Wiersma

Arjen Leendertz

Ricardo Neto

Flute

Juliette Hurel

Joséphine Olech

Flute/piccolo

Beatriz Da Baião

Oboe

Remco de Vries

Karel Schoofs

Anja van der Maten

Oboe/Cor Anglais

Ron Tijhuis

Clarinet

Julien Hervé

Bruno Bonansea

Clarinet/ Bass Clarinet

Romke-Jan Wijmenga

Bassoon

Pieter Nuytten

Lola Descours

Marianne Prommel

Bassoon/ Contrabassoon

Hans Wisse

Horn

David Fernández Alonso

Felipe Santos Freitas Silva

Wendy Leliveld

Richard Speetjens

Laurens Otto

Pierre Buizer

Trumpet

Alex Elia

Simon Wierenga

Jos Verspagen

Trombone

Pierre Volders

Alexander Verbeek

Remko de Jager

Bass trombone

Rommert Groenhof

Tuba

Hendrik-Jan Renes

Percussion

Danny van de Wal

Ronald Ent

Martijn Boom

Adriaan Feyaerts

Harp

Charlotte Sprenkels