On 30 October 2021 Simone Lamsma plays the famous Violin Concerto by the Finn Jean Sibelius. Bas Wiegers conducts the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Prokofiev's dark Sixth Symphony and the Dutch premiere of the orchestral work Roar of Nature by the Chinese composer Xu Ke are also on the programme.

Commitment to unknown repertoire
For every violinist, Sibelius' Violin Concerto is standard repertoire. Since her first performance at the Matinee in 2010, however, Simone Lamsma has mainly played lesser-known solo concertos with us: those by Benjamin Britten, Karol Szymanowski, Sofia Gubaidoelina (both of her violin concertos), Dmitri Shostakovich, Bohuslav Martinů, Sergei Prokofiev, Karl Amadeus Hartmann... Her most recent performance was a true feat of heroism. On 6 March 2021 the originally announced Alina Ibragimova had to cancel - the border was closed due to corona. Lamsma stepped in and managed to rehearse Roslavets' extremely complex First Violin Concerto in one and a half weeks time!
She wants to develop continuously, she told in an interview*, early this year: "I think that the importance of innovation, the power of music and the power to experience such an experience together is unique to the Matinee. It's a kind of community that is really tremendously open and curious."

Love for the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
The Leeuwarden-born violinist also feels a strong bond with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. In the jubilee book De kracht van bevlogen samenenspel. 75 years Radio Philharmonic Orchestra she enthusiastically recalls the many joint projects: "My debut with the Radio Symphony Orchestra, my Concertgebouw debut, my introduction to Jaap van Zweden, the Queen's Day concert with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, which at the time was fighting for its right to exist (unfortunately to no avail), the recording of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto with James Gaffigan...".

Enjoy Sibelius' Violin Concerto on 30 October. It opens with a shimmering carpet of strings: as if you can hear an icy wind whipping through the trees. British musicologist Donald Tovey heard a 'polar bear polonaise' in the ferocious folk dance rhythm of the finale (although brown bears are more common than polar bears in Finland).

NTR Saturday Matinee - 30 October 2021, 14.15 hours
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Bas Wiegers, conductor
Simone Lamsma, violin
Xu Roar of nature (Dutch premiere)
Sibelius Violin Concerto
Prokofiev Sixth Symphony

Listen to the interview with Simone Lamsma on the website of the NTR ZaterdagMatinee.

Order tickets now from The Concertgebouw