About this concert
For over fifty years, the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s Christmas Matinee has been televised live from the Main Hall every Christmas Day. But there’s truly nothing like experiencing the Christmas concert in person. This year, our chief conductor designate Klaus Mäkelä is conducting a programme brimming with musical tributes.
‘It is thanks to Mozart that I have devoted myself to music,’ Tchaikovsky once confessed in a letter. His veneration of this ‘radiant genius’ clearly resonates in his Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra. Sol Gabetta shines tonight in this heavenly work. For Anton Arensky, a composer who died far too young, Tchaikovsky served as an important model, as is clear in the former’s Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky.
With a fascinating emotional range unprecedented for the time, Mozart’s last three symphonies are the crowning achievement of his symphonic œuvre. The Symphony No. 39 was unusual for many reasons, one of which is that Mozart chose to exclude the oboes from the woodwind section, giving free rein to his cherished clarinet. In the ingenious final movement, the composer tips his hat to ‘Papa’ Haydn, while at the same time seemingly anticipating the Romantic era.
