Opening concert: The Bells of Rachmaninov

With the Groot Omroepkoor, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and vocal soloists, chief conductor Karina Canellakis ushers in the new season of the AVROTROS Friday Concert with Rachmaninov's The Bells. Also on the program is a new work by Calliope Tsoupaki.

Karina Canellakis conducts Rachmaninov's The Bell s.
With the Groot Omroepkoor, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and chief conductor Karina Canellakis on the baton, the AVROTROS Friday Concert opens the new season like clockwork. Literally, because the program features Rachmaninov's choral symphony The Bells. As his text, Rachmaninov took Edgar Alan Poe's famous poem The Bells. It is a beautiful line from twinkling bells, to wedding bells and alarm bells, ending with the bells of death. As in so many of his works, and entirely applicable here, Rachmaninov uses the familiar dies irae motif from the Gregorian Mass of the Dead in the finale.

Sibelius and Tsoupaki
The concert also has much to offer before intermission. With Sibelius, we explore Northern European mythology. In Luonnotar, with a highly virtuosic soprano solo sung by Ukrainian soprano Olga Kulchynska, he uses a text from the traditional Finnish heroic epic Kalevala. In En Saga, one of his first major orchestral works, Sibelius explores the atmosphere of the Icelandic Edda.
This season's theme, "Wanderlust," prompted Calliope Tsoupaki to write a new composition for this concert: "The desire to travel, to leave for a distant unknown place, is the basis of the desire to make music.