‘In 2024, I started as an academy student with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. In the first year, I mainly gained experience in the orchestra; originally, I am a soloist. The second year, last year, my probationary period as principal cellist began.

In May, I received the news that I could stay on as principal. That was, of course, fantastic news! There is so much passion in the Rotterdam orchestra. If you chat with people during the break, you feel a certain kind of excitement, even among musicians who have been playing there for forty years.

During my probationary period, a major challenge came along: I was allowed to perform the solo in Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto, with Daniil Trifonov as the soloist. The third movement, the andante, contains a long solo for cello. I was certainly familiar with the feeling of playing a solo, but this was different: as principal, you must constantly alternate between standing out and being part of the orchestra. Next season, I will be playing the solo again, this time with the famous Yuja Wang on piano. 

The third movement comes as a surprise. It feels as if a window opens to a kind of dream world. The cello begins, but is also constantly in dialogue with the piano part, the orchestra, and an oboe solo. I read somewhere that Brahms may have been inspired by Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto, which also contains a cello solo in a slow movement, a romance. That would not surprise me, as Clara Schumann and Brahms had a deep friendship, and perhaps even a love affair. Because there is so much dialogue in it, it is not difficult to imagine that it is a conversation between two kindred spirits. When the piano joins in, you slide into a fantasy world.

Technically, it is not a difficult passage, but a solo is also always psychological. You have to remain as calm as possible; you cannot play a solo in fighting mode. I am always working towards a certain sound, a certain kind of gesture. Here, I want to evoke a feeling of rocking, as if you are lying in a small boat, but at the same time a kind of longing reach towards something or someone. In search of that sound, I play the passage through in various ways. From that, in dialogue with the orchestra and the conductor, the solution emerges.’

Text: Thomas Batelaan Image: Sanne Donders

This article previously appeared in Intrada, Sept-Nov 2026 no. 1.