Karina Canellakis opens the anniversary season

Karina Canellakis, principal conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, opens the new season of the AVROTROS Friday Concert with a mixed romantic-modern programme. Central to the programme is the world premiere of Event Horizon by Dutch composer Jan-Peter de Graaff, who graduated from the Royal Conservatoire in 2016, where he studied with Guus Janssen, Calliope Tsoupaki and Diderik Wagenaar. In 2017, the RFO already performed Le café de nuit by him. The opening work is a colourful painting of The Water Spirit by Antonín Dvorák, after a lugubrious folk ballad by Karel Erben. The Netherlands Radio Choir sings parts from Sergei Rachmaninov's Vespers, music full of deep Russian Orthodox sounds. Then, in Kolokola (The Bells),the composer reminisces about the countless ringing bells of his youth.