Special collaboration between the Intercontinental Ensemble and Benjamin Kruithof. Special arrangement of Schumann’s cello concerto.

The Grachtenfestival celebrates its 25th anniversary and reflects on a rich and musical past. Each year, the Grachtenfestival reinvents itself and ensures that all of Amsterdam is filled with music during the summer.

With any anniversary, one doesn’t just reflects on the past, but also forward to the future. The Intercontinental Ensemble has gone into the repertoire with this in mind and hopes to put together an unforgettable hour of music with this selection.

For the Intercontinental Ensemble, the cello concerto is the third concerto they have turned into a nonet format. They complete their project of adapting all of Robert Schumann’s solo concertos. It feels like an anniversary to play this piece at the festival where they originally brought the first concerto. As with the violin concerto (premiere Grachtenfestival 2020 with Niek Baar) and piano concerto (soloist Nicolas van Poucke), they themselves have transformed the work into a new, more transparent setting. The soloist is given more leeway by the flexible setting of nonet to develop fully; a promising artist like Benjamin Kruithof knows how to use this uncultivated territory perfectly.