There is nothing like good music to start the New Year full of inspiration and energy. This January, The Hague has many inviting musical events for us to enjoy. Cecilia Cattaneo, our classical music columnist, explores some of the classical jewels that The Hague has to offer this month.

The year 2010 starts with a major musical highlight. On Friday 8 January and Sunday 10 January, the Resitentie Orchestra will be wishing us a Happy New Year by presenting an extraordinary New Year’s concert with Carel Kraayenhof. The bandoneon player achieved musical stardom when causing Princess Máxima’s tears with his brilliant interpretation of Adiós Nonino at her wedding with Prince Willem-Alexander in 2002. Together with Kraayenhof’s Sexteto Canyengue (pictured below), the Resitentie Orchestra will play famous pieces by Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla, such as Adiós Nonino and Libertango. Due to the popularity of the music and the interpreters among the Dutch population, there are not many tickets left, so hurry up!
 

The performance of ‘Residentie Orkest Nieuwjaarsconcert’ (The Hague Philharmonic Orchestra's New Yera's Concert) will begin at 20:15 (8 January) and 14:15 (10 January) at Anton Philipszaal, Spuiplein 150, Den Haag. Tickets are between € 10 and € 35 and can be purchased here: www.philipszaal.nl/nl/programma/voorstelling/1226/residentie_orkest/nieuwjaarsconcert/.

Admittedly, a real Wager fan would go to Bayreuth and watch the full-length, six-and-a-half-hour version of the Götterdämmerung. Luckily, the rest of us do not always find that necessary in order to appreciate the strength, power and beauty of Wagner’s work. On Friday 15 January and Saturday 16 January, the Resitentie Orchestra, directed by Claus Peter Flor (pictured right) and accompanied by soprano Adrienne Dugger, will be presenting an evening of Wagner and Love. They will perform extracts of Tannhäuser, an opera about the struggle between sacred and profound love, as well as pieces that Wagner composed for two women he loved at different stages of his life: Mathilde Wesendonck and his wife Cosima. Last but not least, you will be able to listen to the final scene of the Götterdämmerung.
 

The performance of ‘Residentie Orkest – Claus Peter Flor dirigeert Wagner’ will begin at 20:15 (on 15 and 16 January) at Anton Philipszaal, Spuiplein 150, Den Haag. Tickets are between € 10 and € 35 and can be purchased here: www.philipszaal.nl/nl/programma/voorstelling/1232/residentie_orkest/claus_peter_flor_dirigeert_wagner/

Can anything be more inspiring than true talent applied on true masterpieces?

You can find out the answer on Sunday 17 January, when the Polish pianist Ewa Kupiec (pictured left) performs Schubert, Mendelssohn and Chopin on a series of dreamy impromptus, wordless lieder and virtuoso arrangements.
 

The performance of ‘Ewa Kupiec - Meesters aan de Vleugel’ will begin at 14:30 at the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), Spui 175, Den Haag. Tickets are between € 10 and € 25.50 and can be purchased here: www.philipszaal.nl/uk/programma/voorstelling/1101/ewa_kupiec/meesters_aan_de_vleugel/.

Last but not least, you can celebrate the New Year once more on Friday 22 January, when the international award-winning New Dutch Academy performs Mozart on their New Year’s concert.

Simon Murphy, ‘a conductor with the passion and conviction of a born missionary’ (De Volkskrant), will be directing his NDA through the famous Haffner symphony and other works by Mozart, Wranitzky and Von Dittersdorf.

If you have always wondered what musical works most probably sounded like when first performed in the 18th century, this might be your chance to find out. The New Dutch Academy (pictured right) plays on authentic instruments.
 

The performance of ‘The New Dutch Academy – The Mozart Haydn Circle’ will begin at 20:15 at Anton Philipszaal, Spuiplein 150, Den Haag. Tickets are € 28,50 and can be purchased here: www.philipszaal.nl/nl/programma/voorstelling/1103/the_mozart_haydn_circle/muziek_authentiek/

Cecilia Cattaneo

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