USKO: Poème-Symphonique

Lees in het Nederlands

The year 2025 marks the USKO’s 80th anniversary, which they will celebrate this summer with a special and varied programme of works from the romantic period. In 1945, shortly after the end of World War II, the USKO was founded as an accessible society for all Utrecht students who wanted to sing and make music together. It has remained so to this day!

The choir opens the concert with a selection of French and Scandinavian a cappella works by Saint-Saëns, Debussy and Peterson-Berger. These colourful settings are set to poems that sing of various themes of earthly beauty, such as love, nature and everyday life. The orchestra will play Mendelssohn’s famousViolin Concerto, together with soloist Coraline Groen, violinist with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Finally, the choir and orchestra, together with soprano Sunta Overvliet, will perform César Franck’s dramatic Rédemption. In this apocalyptic “Poème-Symphonique”, the intoxication of worldly pleasures from the a capella works is abruptly contrasted with the moral and spiritual crisis in which modern man finds himself. Musical clash of arms, earthly temptations and heavenly angelic choruses constantly alternate. This results in a multifaceted work with powerful rhythms and compelling melodies.