Concertgebouw Orchestra performs Loevendie, Smit and Ravel

Theo Loevendie has long been one of the Netherlands’ most valued composers. A work by this Amsterdam native will be combined in a colourful programme with music written a century ago by Maurice Ravel and Leo Smit. Loevendie composed his Flexio in 1979 to mark the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s 90th anniversary. It will be played in a new orchestration, commissioned by the orchestra, for which Loevendie was assisted by his former student, Wilbert Bulsink. 

Precisely one hundred years ago this month, Ravel himself conducted the Concertgebouw Orchestra in his Ma mère Oye, based on The Tales of Mother Goose. Ravel and jazz have always been recognisable fixtures in Loevendie’s work. Those influences can also be heard in the music of Leo Smit, including his Silhouetten. The piece, written while Smit was still studying composition in Amsterdam, was premiered by the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1925. Sadly, Smit perished in 1943 in the Sobibor extermination camp. 

Meet the Artists - After the concert you are welcome in the Mirror Hall to attend a conversation with Theo Loevendie, Bas Wiegers, Polly Leech and Rob Dirksen (double bass), moderated by the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s artistic assistant, Mark van Dongen.