World premiere: Carnival of Shades, and The Planets

Only once before has The Planets by Gustav Holst sounded in the Matinee. That was over 35 years ago. The imaginative wealth of colours fits in wonderfully with the new work that PeterJan Wagemans composed for our choir and orchestra.

Wagemans' jubilee work Carnival of Shades
The year 2020 was not auspicious for composer Peter-Jan Wagemans. Twice he wrote a new work for the 75th anniversary of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Groot Omroepkoor. Twice the premiere in the ZaterdagMatinee was postponed because of coronary restrictions. During this concert, Wagemans' large-scale Carnival of Shades will be premiered after all. For the texts of the work, he turned to the poetry of the American writer Lucien Zell. "His poetry has a directness comparable to that of Bob Dylan's lyrics", says Wagemans, who stirred a good dose of pop and jazz rhythm into the brightly coloured score for soprano, choir and orchestra.

The Planetsby Holst
A fine antenna for timbre and imaginative orchestrations also characterise Gustav Holst's epic orchestral suite The Planets (1914). Just take the opening movement 'Mars, the Bringer of War'. With the wood of their sticks, the strings drum a battle march from the strings, after which the music swells to the sound of war in brass.

> More information about your visit to The Royal Concertgebouw and the new corona rules