Sint Janskerk Den Bosch
A quick survey across some of my colleagues in the orchestra revealed that apart from the odd concert in Amsterdam or Rotterdam, most of us had not toured the Netherlands since our youth orchestra days. A pity, since the country possesses some excellent concert halls and some of the most affable people on the planet, plus it's easy to get to by train.
So it was that the BBCSO boarded the Brussels-bound Eurostar, thence to Eindhoven. There we rehearsed Herbert Howells's Hymnus Paradisi with the small but splendid Rotterdam Symphony Chorus, conducted by the UK's very own Martyn Brabbins. Now it so happens that Eindhoven is in the Dutch province of North Brabant, so I put it to Martyn that he was possibly once a local lad? 'Absolutely!' He cried. 'Hundreds of years ago the Brabbins ancestors must have originated from here.' The next morning his theory is proved as we stumble across a 'Brabantia' shop, selling, you've guessed it, bins!
But other esteemed things originated from the area - on a morning off I'm torn between visiting the Philips Museum, the Daf Museum (pronounced Duff) or the van Abbé Museum of Modern Art. I settle upon the latter which has an extraordinary collection of pictures and installations, including (ominously) Vangelis Gokas's oil painting of a dead orchestral conductor!
The concert that evening is in the bright acoustics of the Eindhoven Muzikgebouw. Taiwanese violinist Ray Chen wows the locals with the evergreen Bruch concerto. He's a lucky lad as he plays on the Stradivarius once owned by the work's dedicatee, Joseph Joachim. The second half comprises Elgar's nostalgic second symphony which gets a rousing reception.
Next day we head north to the picturesque town of Den Bosch ('s-Hertogenbosch). It is the 500th anniversary of the death of the extraordinary painter Hieronymus Bosch who hails from these parts. As part of a ten-year celebration, the orchestra has been invited to perform Howells's Hymnus Paradisi in the beautiful Gothic cathedral of Sint Jan in the centre of Den Bosch. The concert is filmed for DVD and as a consequence the sanctuary is full of cameras and cables. The choir is positioned behind the orchestra with the disadvantage of not being able to see Martyn Brabbins. He asks for a box to stand on, and then promptly asks for a bigger box... The work is quite thickly scored and the orchestra has to try to be as transparent as possible in order not to cover the choir and soloists. But at the same time the piece is on a constant emotional simmer, occasionally rising to boiling point, and one has to play with considerable restraint.
As with our September trip to Finland, the Netherlands seems to possess bus drivers who view the coach as a vehicle for entertainment rather than just for driving. In Lahti the driver had informed us that we would be cruising at a speed of 100 kmh and at an altitude of approximately 50 centimetres... On this trip our droll Dutch coach driver reminds us that, like yesterday, his name is still Olaf, following that up with 'well, you never know in Holland...things can change rapidly.' But Olaf delivers us smoothly to Rotterdam which boasts the fine de Doelen concert hall. The concert goes very well and Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia sounds radiant in the warm acoustics. Ray Chen's performance of the Bruch Violin Concerto inspires an immediate standing ovation from the friendly audience and he follows this with an impressive version of Paganini's 21st Caprice.
After a moving performance of the Howells we are treated to a reception where I get chatting with Neil Wallace, the director of programming at de Doelen. He's an ex-chorister at Lincoln Cathedral where he developed a passion for Howells's choral music: 'I think he is right up there with Elgar and Vaughan Williams in terms of his genius,' he says. 'I've wanted to schedule Hymnus Paradisi for 20 years, but it had to be with a British orchestra. Plenty of Dutch orchestras can play Elgar but this requires an English sensitivity.'
Utrecht
Our final concert takes place in the beautiful mediaeval city of Utrecht. Resplendent with canals and ancient buildings it looks gorgeous in the autumnal colours. The concert hall is in part of an extraordinary complex, Tivoli Vredenburg, comprising no fewer than five performance spaces.
The Sunday afternoon concert is a reprise of our first, and time is taken to site the second orchestra for the Tallis Fantasia. It can be tricky to get the balance right with this; too loud and the echo effect is lost, too far away and you get a delay between the groups. But all is well by the concert and after another Bruch and Elgar, it's time to clamber aboard the amusing Olaf's bus one last time and head for Schiphol Airport for a late flight home.
Photos by Nikos Zarb
Old Harbour, Rotterdam
