Come and listen to the 2025 Fall Concert by the Der Aa Philharmonic, themed “Myths & Masks.” Our orchestra periodically collaborates with guest conductors, and this time we have forged a rewarding and successful partnership with the northern conductor Ronald Slager.

Today we present a program of theatrical musical stories—from dreamy fairytales to exuberance with sharp irony and hidden layers. “Myths & Masks” is an invitation to listen with open ears and imagination. Discover how sounds can seduce, deceive, move, and reveal.

PROGRAM

Camille Saint-Saëns: La Princesse Jaune

Wim Dirriwachter: Le Roi et le Tambour

Igor Stravinsky: Le Baiser de la Fée

Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9

PROGRAM NOTES

Myths & Masks

The evening opens with Saint-Saëns’s overture La Princesse Jaune, a lighthearted ode to Japanese art, in which Western fantasies are enlivened by enchanting Eastern orchestral sounds.

In his suite Le Roi et le Tambour, the Dutch composer Wim Dirriwachter incorporated melodies from French folk ballads, ironic songs about remarkable events at the French court.

Then you enter the fairytale world of Igor Stravinsky’s Le Baiser de la Fée (The Fairy’s Kiss). This music is based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen. A young boy is saved during a snowstorm by the kiss of a fairy, the Ice Maiden. Unknowingly, however, he seals his fate: years later, he dies at the hands of the Ice Maiden, and so she claims him for herself. Magic with a dark mask.

After the intermission, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 will be performed. A seemingly lighthearted and festive symphony, written to commemorate the end of World War II. However, Shostakovich defied Stalin’s expectations—a grand Ninth Symphony à la Beethoven, to express the Russian victory—with masked sarcasm and a bitter undertone that mocks the myth of Stalinism.