Jonny Greenwood's violin concerto reaches the Concertgebouw

Jonny Greenwood's violin concerto æþm, its title the Old English for breath, had its Dutch premiere at a sold-out Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on Saturday 16 May, after its first performance in Manchester in February. Daniel Pioro was the soloist again, with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest under Hugh Tieppo-Brunt, in the NTR ZaterdagMatinee series. Before it, Greenwood came on with a guitar and started Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint while the interval was officially still on. Het Parool reports that the hall's gong was broken, so an usher called the audience back with a hand bell.

Frederike Berntsen, in Het Parool, admired Pioro and his rapport with Greenwood but found few arcs of tension in the concerto's 32 minutes, and preferred the first half, which belonged to Aart Strootman. Dennis van den Berg, a rock fan sent by Luister into a world he did not know, heard Penderecki in it, and Greenwood's own There Will Be Blood score, and says he was not bored once all afternoon.

The programme, 16 May