On Tuesday evening, the Nederlands Kamerkoor provided the so-called counter-performance of the state visit to Austria with the performance ‘Van Gogh in Me’. With this performance, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima thanked them for their hospitality during the trip.
Read more about Queen Máxima’s dress at the bottom of the article.
Artistic director Tido Visser considers it a “huge honour” to be able to travel with the royal couple in this way. “It is the first time that a choir has joined a state visit,” Visser told ANP. “Earlier, for example, the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Dutch Dance Theater went on a state visit and now we are allowed. We have been in existence since 1937, so it is great to be able to do this in the year of our 85th anniversary.”
Van Gogh in Me was actually only supposed to have its world premiere on 13 November in the Royal Theater Carré, but that has now been brought to the fore because of the state visit. The premiere is now in the Wiener Konzerthaus. “That is one of the most iconic halls in Europe, so it is an honor to perform there anyway. We perform all over the world, but this is one of the halls where we like to be,” says Visser.
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Van Gogh and Klimt
With Van Gogh in Me, the Nederlands Kamerkoor brings works of art by Vincent van Gogh and Gustav Klimt to life. An Italian video studio developed an algorithm especially for the performance through which the works of the painters react to the music and emotions of the singer and thus seem to come to life. “It is an audiovisual journey through the fin de siècle”, Visser describes the way in which the style period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries can be seen in the performance.
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In any case, the choir was “very much looking forward to it”, says Visser. “But of course it is also exciting. Especially because everything has to come together again. But we have everything under control under the leadership of chief conductor Peter Dijkstra.
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