Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

The Concertgebouw Orchestra performs Brahms' Symphony no. 3 and two well-known choral works, under the direction of the esteemed British conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

The Essentials Series introduces you to the masterpieces every music lover should know, performed by the Concertgebouw Orchestra and given a lively introduction by the incomparable Thomas Vanderveken.

Everything sings in this symphony!

Photo: Simon Van Boxtel

In this Essentials concert, the British conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra playing Brahms’s autumnal Symphony No. 3. Everything sings in this symphony! With his very own Monteverdi Choir, Gardiner is pairing the symphony with a number of Brahms’ choral works. 

Brahms’ experience with choral music resonates in his symphonies. He was barely 14 years old when he first led a local male voice choir. The singers even performed works by their young conductor. Brahms later founded his own women’s choir, thereby gaining invaluable experience as a conductor and composer. He chose rigorous Renaissance and Baroque composers as his models, yet dressed this tradition in an unmistakeably romantic guise.

John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra

Sir John Eliot Gardiner is the founder and artistic director of both the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir. He also founded the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique in 1989. He has served as principal conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the CBC Vancouver Orchestra and the Opéra National de Lyon.

Since 1994 Gardiner has made numerous appearances with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Between 2021 and 2023 he leads the orchestra in a Brahms cycle, pairing the four symphonies to Brahms’ piano concertos and choral works in live concerts, as well as recording them for Deutsche Grammophon.

Photo: Sim Canetty-Clarke

Good to know

The Concertgebouw opens at 8.20pm and the concert starts at 9pm. Drinks before the concert are included in the ticket price. The performance is one hour long and there is no intermission. Afterwards, you can enjoy a drink in the Entrée Café in The Concertgebouw. 

Concert programme

Here's a summary of the concert programme:

Performers

Here are the performers at the Essentials: Brahms concert:

All up-to-date information about this concert can be found on the Concertgebouw Orchestra website.

Concertgebouw Orchestra

The Concertgebouw Orchestra was founded in 1888. Its distinctive sound has made it one of the world’s leading orchestras. The orchestra is famous for its renditions of works by Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Anton Bruckner, and for its long-standing concert traditions such as the St Matthew Passion in the week before Easter and the Christmas Matinee. It has always worked closely with contemporary composers.

World-famous guest conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Iván Fischer, Daniel Harding and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla will be coming to Amsterdam to lead the orchestra next season. Concertgebouw Orchestra has had just seven chief conductors to date. The eighth was announced on June 10, 2022: Klaus Mäkelä will be joining as artistic partner starting in the 2022-23 season and will become chief conductor in 2027. The coming season sees five extraordinary programmes with Klaus Mäkelä at the helm. 

Get your tickets

Get your tickets online for the concert and check out the Concertgebouw Orchestra website for more information about the concert programme and the performers!

Thumb photo: © Hans Roggen