Lorenzo Viotti conducts Wagner's Der Ring ohne Worte

Bruce Liu with Saint-Saëns.

Canadian pianist Bruce Liu, winner of the 2021 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, makes his debut with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. He does so with Saint-Saëns' Fifth Piano Concerto . The nickname “Egyptian” refers to the second movement, which is based on an ancient Egyptian love song. But the French composer also incorporated his travel impressions of Brazil and Southeast Asia, among other places, into this composition. You imagine yourself on a boat trip down the Nile, with ancient temples passing by and the rowers singing their traditional songs.

Lorenzo Viotti conducts a special Wagner

Of course, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and its principal guest conductor Lorenzo Viotti are the right choice for Wagner. Since the 1990s, the orchestra has played legendary performances of Wagner's Ring cycle at the Dutch National Opera. More recently, Viotti's performance of Wagner's opera Lohengrin received rave reviews. Trouw wrote that ‘Lorenzo Viotti made the choir and orchestra shine in a thrilling Lohengrin ’.

Lorenzo Viotti brings a very special Wagner to the fore. While the composer needed a fourteen-hour opera for his complete Ring des Nibelungen , conductor Lorin Maazel felt it could be shorter. He took the ultimate essence of Wagner's megalomaniacal work and condensed it into a thrilling symphonic poem of just over an hour, from the mystical opening notes of Das Rheingold to the dramatic final notes of Götterdämmerung .

This programme can be heard on 4 February at TivoliVredenburg Utrecht and on 5 and 7 February at the Concertgebouw.

Spotify playlist

Have a listen to the programme in advance via this Spotify playlist: