We have thousands of human-written stories, discussions, interviews and reviews from today through the past 20+ years. Find them here:

Search the site Search

Haydn leaving-symphony before the rebuilding of a concerthall

June 19, 2007 at 10:54 AM

Yesterday I saw a strange picture on the frontpage of my newspaper. 2 people with helmets play violin. In the subscribtion under the photo stood that 2 people play the Haydn leaving-symphony before the rebuilding of a concerthall in Utrecht in the centre of the Netherlands, which will last 4 years. I earlier saw this Haydn-symphony in the concerthall. During the piece nearly all members of the orchestra leave during playing and walked away. Here they got a helmet and a yellow reflecting jacket, like they were construction workers.
In those 4 years they will play in churches and other halls in the neighboorhood.

What a cool PR strategy.
Bram,
even your newspaper tailors its news for you...
nice story, thank you for sharing.
Wow! Such a picture and article would never appear on the front page of an article here. People in your country take classical music a lot more seriously than people here (U.S.). People on their way to work in the Netherlands might even stop to listen to Joshua Bell play his violin.
Which concert hall is it that they are rebuilding in Utrecht?
I was in Utrecht for 4 years from 1979 to 1983.
Is it the concert hall for the Utrecht Symphony (it's a round setup somewhat like the Concert Gebouw)?
The concerthall is called Vredenburg near the station for trains. The Utrecht Symphony Orchestra did not exist any more, because they did not get subsidy, because the government did not want to spend too much money for orchestra's and art. All orchestra 's need extra money to exist, except the walse orchestra of André Rieu, the Johann Strauss Orchestra, which plays walses and easy listening music from musicals for a broader and not-intellectual and on-élite public.