Young talent creates an intimate atmosphere in an empty hall

Luckily we still have the radio. But what a shame that no audience was allowed to be present at the Young Talent Festival of AVROTROS Klassiek, Friday evening in TivoliVredenburg. Assisted by the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, six young musicians – two soloists and a string quartet – played a colorful program around the music city of Vienna. And they did that superbly. The concert could go ahead because it was not a public event but a radio recording. The program is partially repeated in the Sunday morning concert; both concerts can be listened back via the website of NPO Radio 4.

Pianist Nikola Meeuwsen, cellist Anton Spronk and the Animated Kwartet have been selected in recent years for the ‘AVROTROS Klassiek Presenteert’ talent trajectory. They were allowed to record a debut CD and played prominent radio concerts. This mini festival brought them together in an empty hall, where thanks to the lighting and their glowing playing, there was still an intimate atmosphere.

Sitting opposite the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the Animato ‘soloed’ in Mozart’s Night serenade, which pits a quartet against an orchestral group. In between parts, the Animato played with great effect bits from Webern’s atonal Five sentences, on. 5 for string quartet. This approach set the tone: the classical Vienna of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven was central, but received subtle commentary from the twentieth century.

Pianist Meeuwsen called Beethoven’s late The trifles ‘the most beautiful music there is’ and then played two of them in such a way that you were inclined to agree with him. Together with cellist Spronk, Meeuwsen also nominated a part of Schubert’s Arpeggione-sonatas for that honorary title: their concentrated playing was an example of ever-deepening simplicity.

The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, empathically and dynamically led by guest concertmaster Joe Puglia, accompanied Spronk in two parts from the Celloconcert in D from Haydn. Spronk won the Dutch Classical Talent Award last year. His long vocal lines and flawless technique made an impression, culminating in the fiery cadence in the Allegro moderato.