"How do I hear music?" asked André de Ridder, looking away to consider the question. "For me, music is the most inescapable, physical and visceral of all the art forms. Sound waves touch me – in the best sense of the word – and envelop me. My heart beat changes, I get goosebumps, the hairs on my arms stand on end. Music lifts me off the ground and onto a different plane." He turned back and added, "It gives me a kind of happiness."            

                                                                      Rory MacLean, Goethe-Institut, December 2011

 

NEWS & HIGHLIGHTS

New Year, New Shores...
2011 saw André de Ridder return to the Hallé Orchestra with a widely acclaimed performance of Josef Suk's 'Fantastic Scherzo' and give a dazzling world premiere of Hans Abrahamsen's Double Concerto with soloists Baiba Skride and Lauma Skride and both the Royal Danish and Swedish Chamber orchestras. He premiered Rolf Wallin's Trumpet Concerto in Scandinavia with the world-renowned trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger and toured Owen Pallet's opera Heartland with the Noord Nederlands Orkest. André de Ridder brought the year to a close with an acclaimed show of 'Paeanumnion' at the Barbican in London featuring electronica artists Mouse on Mars.

The new year promises more opera excitement with a project at the Komische Oper Berlin where André leads performances of three Monteverdi operas. He will also return to Heidelberg (Philharmisches Orchester), Sinfonia ViVA, Britten Sinfonia, Jenaer Philharmonie, Residentie Orkest and the Amsterdam Holland Festival with a performance of Stanley Kubrick's seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

"The performance, with nine solo singers led by Roderick Williams as the Wandering Jew, a quartet of actors and the BBC Singers and Symphony Orchestra under André de Ridder, is first rate; it's a major undertaking that has been realised with great care.” 

                                                                          Andrew Clements, The Guardian, June 2011

                                               (BBC Symphony/Robert Saxton ‘The Wandering Jew’ CD release)