To France with Lahav Shani

The suppleness of Debussy, the exciting richness of colour of the French' Rus Stravinsky and a new solo concert. Lahav Shani takes you south.

The French stroke

With the appointment of Lahav Shani, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra stuck its neck out in 2018. Since then, the public has fully embraced the young principal conductor. The press, too, is unanimously praising the combination. One heard "furious temperament" in Beethoven and a Sacre that "far exceeds the neat playing of the notes". With twentieth-century masterpieces by Dutilleux and Ravel, Shani proves that he also has the 'French touch' in him. He will carry the orchestra and the hall away in evocative worlds of colour and atmosphere.

New solo concerto by Escaich

A highlight will also be the new Flute Concerto that French composer-organist Thierry Escaich wrote for the French and since 2017 first flutist of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Joséphine Olech. After Escaich's viola concerto La nuit des chants, which premiered at the ZaterdagMatinee in 2018, the Volkskrant already wrote enthusiastically about its "clear construction" and the "dusky opening, built around a derailing scale".