Shostakovitsch 7 recorded for Decca
Monday, September 24, 2001
Last saterday the Gregiev festival came to an end. 2 weeks of great performances with music by Shostakovitsch played by the Kirov (Mariinsky Theater) Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Hans Leenders, Maxim Shostakovitsch and our maestro Valery Gergiev.
All concerts were sold out and the festival had 25.000 visitors in one and a half week.
For me the highlight of the week was the performance of the 7th Symphony (the Leningrad Symphony) of Shostakovitsch with a combination orchestra of the Petersburg and Rotterdam orchestra's.
I had the honer to play in the orchestra with Igor Yakovoev and Alex Verbeek (principal trombones), Fedor Arskhipov (second trombone) and Nikolai Slepnev (tuba). The second brassgroup was played by Pierre Volders, Remko de Jager and Nikolai Timofeev.
Maestro Gergiev made this concert an unforgatable experience. The concert is recorded by DECCA for CD and I can tell you this will be a CD you have to buy!
After the concert we had some great beers with our colleagues from Russia. The young talented bass trombone of the orchestra, Mikhail Silvestrov, listened to the concert and was knocked out by the emotional performance.
Nikolai Timofeev, Ben van Dijk and Mikhail Silvestrov.
Next years festival will be dedicated to Maestro Gergiev. In this season he will reach the age of 50, be with the Rotterdam Philharmonic for 15 years and will celebrate his 25th year as conductor.