Here’s some good news related to music in the Low Countries, after last week’s announcement that the Fleming Gerard Mortier’s highly anticipated arrival at New York City Opera as its new artistic director and general manager had fallen through after a financial dispute. The good news though is that the Netherlands Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra tops the British magazine Gramophone's List Of World's Best Orchestras, right in front of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Wiener Philharmoniker and the London Symphony Orchestra. James Inverne, editor of Gramophone (which dubs itself as ‘the world's best classical music magazine’), praises the characteristic sound of the Orchestra as instantly recognisable and a bit rough around the edges, the latter quality allowing the Orchestra to give each performed piece the right ‘spirit’.
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO; see also this article in the yearbook The Low Countries) was founded in 1888, got its ‘Royal’ epithet in 1988, and has had its share of famous conductors over the years, such as Willem Mengelberg (1895-1945), Eduard van Beinum (1945-1959), Bernard Haitink (1959-1988) and Riccardo Chailly (1988-2004). Since 2004 Latvian-born Mariss Jansons has been wielding the baton. The orchestra’s solid reputation is mainly built on its performance of the late-romantic music of Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler.
Carl Maria von Weber's 'Overture to Oberon' by Willem Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1931.
Recently, on October 24, the orchestra celebrated its 120th anniversary. To mark this special occasion, the AVRO broadcast network, Dutch Radio 4 and the RCO are giving away a present – or rather ten presents. From 15 October until November 24, ten of the best-loved nineteenth-century symphonies (all performed by the RCO) are being made available for free download here. And as from 2009 the Dutch government will grant the Orchestra a considerably larger subsidy for ‘international excellency’.
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