Because of a promise in the report on the ‘BankGiro Loterij’ concerts, I still owe you a report on one of these concerts. Fortunately, I did not have to travel to Amsterdam to attend it, since I could enjoy almost the same concert for free on a beautiful warm summer night in my hometown because of a local holiday on August 28. The concert’s official name was “The August 28 concert,” which is pretty funny, since the concert was held on August 27. I prefer to keep the title they have used for the Amsterdam edition of this concert, since it fits better with the music on the program.
After the traditional “Grönnens laid,” our local anthem in honor of the holiday, to open the concert, we could listen to the famous classical piece “William Tell” Overture. The evening’s orchestra NNO likes to include classical pieces in their film music concerts, and for this program, next to the famous overture, these were “Dance of the Knights” from Romeo and Juliet and “Adagio” from Spartacus, which are both pieces from a ballet. After attending some of their concerts, NNO have proven that they are capable of performing these classical pieces beautifully.
I did not know that the famous “The Second Waltz,” written by Dmitri Shostakovich, is officially film music, since it was apparently written for the Russian movie The First Echelon. I love how I can learn new things about film music every day. Further pieces from television and movies were a suite from Game of Thrones, the theme from House of Cards, and the theme from Floris, which was a famous television show in the late sixties directed by Paul Verhoeven and with the main role for Rutger Hauer, who passed away this year.
Another important Dutch movie with Rutger Hauer in a leading role is Turks Fruit, which Rogier Otterloo wrote the music for. Hermine Deurloo was invited on to the stage to play the beautiful harmonica solo from “Dat Mistige Rooie Beest.” This piece was not the only one perfectly suited for a harmonica, and she also performed the famous Dutch commercial jingle for the Unox brand, the theme for the Baantjer television show, “Man with a Harmonica” from Once Upon a Time in the West and the theme from Jean de Florette.
As you can see the program contained all kinds of different pieces, which, in my opinion, were very well balanced. There were classical pieces, but luckily for me the main focus was on the music for television and movies. I really loved the two pieces to honor Rutger Hauer, including the Floris theme that I had never heard live before, as I had never had with the theme from Jean de Florette. It is always a treat for me when soundtracks that I have never heard live before are played at a concert, and it reminds me that there is so much in the soundtrack world that I have not explored yet. I also need to mention returning host Eric Corton. As I expected, he did a good job of entertaining the audience and introducing the music to us.
When I saw the announcement of the concert, I was expecting a program with a strong focus on classical pieces and well-known soundtracks, but I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of music for television and movies, which were all performed very well. Apparently, I was not the only one who enjoyed the concert. Most of the time when I attend this open-air concert on our local holiday, there are always people in the audience who are chatting, making noise and do other things that are extremely annoying, but this time, even during the very silent solo parts, my surroundings were quiet and everyone was enjoying the beautiful music. I think this was one of NNO’s best film music concerts, and I hope they will do one again in the near future.
Concert information
Where: Ossenmarkt – Groningen, The Netherlands
When: August 27, 2019
Orchestra: The North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arjan Tien
Harmonica: Hermine Deurloo
Host: Eric Corton
Program
- Geert Teis Pzn – “Grönnens laid” (local anthem)
- Gioachino Rossini – “William Tell” Overture
- Ramin Djawadi – Suite from Game of Thrones
- Jeff Beal – Theme from House of Cards
- Jan Stoeckart – Theme from Floris
- Rogier van Otterloo – “Dat Mistige Rooie Beest” from Turks Fruit
- Harmonica: Hermine Deurloo
- Jurre Haanstra – “Circle of Smiles” from Baantjer
- Harmonica: Hermine Deurloo
- Sergei Prokofiev – “Dance of the Knights” from Romeo and Juliet
- Richard Strauss – “Also sprach Zarathustra”
- Aram Khachaturian – “Adagio” from Spartacus
- Dmitri Shostakovich – “The Second Waltz” from The First Echelon
- Jean-Claude Petit – Theme from Jean de Florette
- Harmonica: Hermine Deurloo
- Reinder van Zalk – Unox commercial
- Harmonica: Hermine Deurloo
- Ennio Morricone – “Man with a Harmonica” from Once Upon a Yime in the West
- Harmonica: Hermine Deurloo
