Hartmut Haenchen leads the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra in the performances of ‘Mors aeterna’ by Willem Jeths. This work, which Jeths wrote for the NTR ZaterdagMatinee, is among the composer’s most tranquil expressions and can partly be considered a preliminary stage of his Requiem. Towards the end of this Mors Aeterna, for instance, a moving and resigned chorale-like passage in the strings passes in review, which will return more than once in this death mass.
‘Haenchen is one of the most interesting conductors of our time. His Eighth Symphony by Bruckner was one for the annals,’ Erik Voermans wrote in Parool last spring; he had never even heard the Adagio so beautiful. Haenchen spent years researching the Austrian composer’s symphonies and concludes the Bruckner cycle with his old orchestra with the peerless Ninth Symphony. Prior to Bruckner’s symphony, Haenchen conducts works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Willem Jeths. As an opening, Bach’s Ricercare BMW 1079 from the ‘Musikalisches Opfer’, a special collection of music the composer dedicated to Frederick the Great of Prussia, will be played. The orchestra plays the work in Anton Webern’s much-loved orchestration.
Saturday, February 24 – Concertgebouw Amsterdam
Sunday, February 25 – TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht
Monday, February 26 – Concertgebouw Amsterdam
Composers in the crosshairs of our attention