PHILIPS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
review archive
This page contains only a few (recent) reviews of PSO concerts.
A much more extensive, older archive up to 2005 can be found on our old website.
Eindhovens Dagblad - Tuesday 30 November 2010
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Philips Symphony Orchestra in top condition
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By MARJOLIJN SENGERS
The Eindhoven orchestra played the Zevende Bruckner on Sunday evening in the Muziekgebouw. And how!
It is a work that every self-respecting symphony orchestra has high on the wish list. It is also a work that an amateur symphony orchestra will not soon embark on. The Philips Symphony Orchestra played the Zevende Bruckner on Sunday evening in the Muziekgebouw. And how! The use of the low strings immediately gave the certainty that everything would be fine. Sonorous, homogeneous and powerful, the lyrical theme of the Allegro Moderato started, the rest of the four-movement symphony followed in the same atmosphere of dedication and drive. The Philips Orchestra was in top condition. It played vigorously, cleanly, meticulously, with a feeling for the long lines and an eye for details and finish. Delicacy and decisiveness alternated, in both winds and strings. The connection between the musicians, the collective will to make something beautiful out of it, was palpable, the result was simply poignant.
Before the break, the Philips Orchestra impressed with a blistering rendition of 'Vorspiel' from Wagner's 'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg' and a loving performance of Mahler's 'Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen'. The subtly filled in wind parts in particular gave Mahler's emotional music color and drawing. Baritone Martijn Sanders sang with heart and soul, but too emphatically. He seemed to think in words rather than sentences. As a result, the already slow movement became even slower, the barrel got out and the bandages sometimes lost.
Afterwards, conductor Jules van Hessen emphatically applauded the orchestra, which in turn made no secret of its appreciation for him.
Marriage - Wednesday 29 June 2011
Enthusiastic airport concert with floating musicians
By Anita Twaalfhoven Family Concert - "Wheel of Energy in Concert" at Schiphol Airport. Info: www.wheelofenergy.org.
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Sometimes nothing sticks better than performing arts with a solid mission. If it is also surprising and brilliantly performed for an engaged audience, you don't have to explain the value of art anymore. Last weekend the family concert "Wheel of Enery in Concert" played on the square in front of the main entrance of Schiphol Airport, in honor of Richard Bottram's 500th marathon in the Wheel of Energy. He will run a marathon every day in a large wheel that will be placed on the square in front of the airport for the next few months. With the aim of drawing attention to a better life with cancer, in other words support for the phychosocial care around this disease.
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During the sponsor concert by the Philips Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Jules van Hessen, children also enthusiastically run along with the famous marathon runner on the wheel next to the stage. Cancer is a disease that affects young and old.
All pieces of music are inspired by the theme 'run & fly'. In a series of spectacular acts, singers dressed as aviation personnel fly through the air on a crane, before landing on stage for a solo. Witty is the flight of 'captain' Marcel Reijans, who in full uniform with a straight face sings a KLM medley: "Come fly with me. Let's fly away. It's such a lovely day!" But you wouldn't expect the young 'stewardess' Laetitia Gerards to suddenly continue her story, singing jazzy, after her neat welcome speech to the public, which she addresses like the passengers of a Boeing 737. The winner of the fifth Christina Deutekom Junior Competition has a surprisingly beautiful voice.
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The scene surrounding the music from the film The Terminal is moving. A scene from the action film starring Tom Hanks can be seen on a large projection screen. Meanwhile, a real helicopter flies over the heads of the audience and Max, a boy who has lost his sister to cancer, gets the remote control. For a moment he's all in control and that's nice when you've lost grip on life.
Eindhovens Dagblad - December 9, 2017
Mahler's Hymn to Love brings connection
By Marjolijn Sengers -
"Philips Symphony Orchestra, five choirs and eight soloists with the symphony no. 8 by Gustav Mahler conducted by Jules van Hessen. In Muziekgebouw Eindhoven on Friday 8 December.
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Have you ever experienced that in a full Muziekgebouwzaal there are as many musicians as listeners? Probably not and the chance that this will happen again in the foreseeable future is very small, because organizing a performance of Mahler's Eighth Symphony is a mega job in all respects. But there it was, the symphony nicknamedSymphony of the Tausendperformed by 530 singers and instrumentalists from across the country.
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It was a privilege to be there. Because of the music itself, the Hymn to Love, described by Mahler as 'greater en betekenisvoller than anything I've ever made', but above all because of the ultimate atmosphere of mutual connection that was palpable in every note. At Mahler Acht you have to go through a good hour with quite a few decibels to experience the most beautiful ten minutes of music literature. That is the one side of this work, which is also movingly beautiful in parts outside those ten minutes, but in which the composer wants to express so much that it is better not to do your best to follow it all. The other side is that last night over five hundred people played and sang this music wholeheartedly, and the remaining five hundred were swept up in the transcendent power that emanated from . Great stimulator was Jules van Hessen, Maestro Jules and now also knight Jules - during the performance in Amsterdam on 30 November he received a royal award for his many achievements in the field of music.
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Great organizer is the Philips Symphony Orchestra that made a dream come true for many with this project. Big winners are the excellent soloists, the enthusiastically singing giant choir and the hard-working, observant orchestra members who all gave the best of themselves to appeal to the best in the other.
