I've heard about the Concertgebouw ever since I started listening to classical music radio stations. It seems as though every tenth piece they play on the radio is a performance from the Concertgebouw.
The Dutch name sounds rather fancy, but it just means "the concert building."
The Concertgebouw program for the evening of a recent Amsterdam layover, entitled "The Last Notes," started with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra playing Contrapunctus I and V from Bach's final composition of his life, The Art of Fugue. I couldn't miss the opportunity, so I bought a ticket.
I sat in the south balcony, diagonally across from the "Bach" portal (Bach's name is on a plaque above the red curtains to the right of the organ) in the gorgeous Grote Zaal.
After the eye-wateringly beautiful two fugues, when our applause had ended, Lisa Larsson made her entrance. She was the soprano soloist for Benjamin Britten's "Illuminations" and she appeared at the "Bach" portal and glided down the red-carpeted steps in a glittering and flowing white gown.
Like Cinderella at the ball...beautiful!
At intermission, I sat on a bench to enjoy chocolate milk and cookies while looking through the window to see if my borrowed bicycle was still in the rack where I'd parked it. (9:15 pm but still light outside in Northern Europe.)
The final number, in line with the "Last Notes" theme, was Mozart's "Requiem." It was a glorious end to my first evening in Amsterdam's Royal Concert Hall - Het Concertgebouw.
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