Take an Easter excursion with the Amsterdamse Tramharmonie Saturday 7 April at 8:15pm in Haarlemse Philharmonie as the Tramharmonie journies from the forests of Europe to the skyscrapers of Manhattan.
Tickets are €10 for Ivy Circle alumni, including intermission drink and coat check, and can be purchased by e-mailing Kate Lupson at pr@tramharmonie.
The orchestra will begin their wandering with the overture to Engelbert Humperdinck’s beloved children’s opera Hansel und Gretel. From German fairy tales to Norse mythology they'll enter Valhalla with Teo Barberán’s epic Asgard. Named for one of the Viking religion’s nine worlds, Asgard begins at “The Door of Val Hall,” before visiting the “Guard of the Clouds.” The final movement “Crazy Man” pays homage to Odin, creator of Asgard and father of Thor.
Then it’s all aboard the Black Pearl with Pirates of the Caribbean, Walt Disney’s retelling of Spanish sailing legends. Hans Zimmer’s score is a sea shanty meets swashbuckling thriller.
From Europe’s Gods and Monsters they’re off to the New World and a new era. Aaron Copland’s soaring Fanfare of the Common Man was inspired by then-Vice President Henry Wallace’s declaration on the eve of the American entry into World War II that the 20th Century was to be the “Century of the Common Man.”
No common man, trombonist Anton van Houten of the Holland Symfonia plays the Grøndhal Trombone Concerto, which marries the composer’s Danish coolness with the passion of Italy, where the work was composed. Closing the concert is George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, a distinctly American piano concerto with references to Ragtime and the heady days of the Harlem Renaissance. The Tramharmonie’s own Erik Jan de Vries plays the famed jazz solo as they complete their journey from Haarlem to Harlem.
About the Tramharmonie
The concert represents the Tramharmonie’s one-year anniversary with conductor Ali Groen, who last year conducted the Tramharmonie in its 50th concert in Het Concertgebouw before leading the orchestra to the first prize at Switzerland’s Jungfrau Music Festival. The Amsterdamse Tramharmonie was founded in 1906 by conductors and directors of Amsterdam’s tram system. In its 106 years, it has played in Het Concertgebouw fifty times, plus concerts at venues such as Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Paradiso, Beurs van Berlage, and Uitmarkt. The orchestra has played with renowned Dutch stars Edwin Rutten, Karin Bloemen, Henk Poort, Laura Fygi, and more, and has performed three world premieres by Dutch composer Bernard van Beurden.
For more information, see www.haarlemtoharlem.nl