Berlage’s Vision

Berlage Saxophone Quartet + Vincent Bijlo

March 5th 2026 at 20:15 – 22:00

Bach – selection from Goldbergvariations (arr. Peter Vigh)
Erwin Schulhoff – Fünf Stücke (arr. Peter Vigh)
Claude Debussy – Pagodes (arr. Peter Vigh)
Joey Roukens – Quodlibet

Berlage Saxophone Quartet
Lars Niederstrasser – soprano saxophone
Peter Vigh – alto saxophone
Juani Palop Tecles – tenor saxophone
Eva van Grinsven – baritone saxophone

At the centre of the concert evening is the brilliant Jess Gillam, one of the most exciting musicians of our time. With her soprano saxophone, she combines technical virtuosity and charismatic stage presence like rarely seen. Two works put the saxophone in the spotlight: Dave Heath’s “The Celtic” and James MacMillan’s Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and String Orchestra. Both works are tailor-made for Jess Gillam. Heath’s “The Celtic” combines Celtic melancholy with rhythmic energy, while MacMillan’s work explores the boundaries of the instrument’s timbres and expressive possibilities. His most famous is certainly the Ninth, but for many, Antonín Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony is his best. This music feels rugged and melancholic, yet compact and strict. There is no superfluous note here, every motif is worked through, every counterpoint has something to say. No question: this is not cozy folk music from a Bohemian village tavern, but highly concentrated symphonic music in the spirit of Beethoven and Brahms.

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Saxophone Dreams with Jess Gillam

March 11th 2026 at 19:30 – 21:30

ANNA CLYNE – Sound and Fury†
DANI HOWARD – Saxophone Concerto*
GEORGE WALKER – Lyric for Strings
CAROLINE SHAW – Entr’acte
DAVE HEATH – The Celtic*
JOHN HARLE – Rant!*

Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Ben Glassberg – conductor
Jess Gillam – saxophones*
†Commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

An inspiring fixture on radio and TV, Cumbrian-born Jess Gillam is first and foremost a world-class saxophonist. She brings her invigorating musical personality to a typically adventurous collection of music across diverse styles and sounds for the last of our New Dimensions concerts.

Young British composer Dani Howard wrote her effervescent new Saxophone Concerto specially for Gillam, while Dave Heath throws you into the whirling energy of a raucous ceilidh in his galvanising concerto The Celtic.

Haydn provides the calmer inspiration for Anna Clyne’s scintillating Sound and Fury, written for the SCO in 2019, and also for Caroline Shaw’s mercurial Entr’acte. The great African American composer George Walker, meanwhile, regularly moves listeners to tears with his striking Lyric for Strings.

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Saxophone Dreams with Jess Gillam

March 12th 2026 at 19:30 – 21:30

ANNA CLYNE – Sound and Fury†
DANI HOWARD – Saxophone Concerto*
GEORGE WALKER – Lyric for Strings
CAROLINE SHAW – Entr’acte
DAVE HEATH – The Celtic*
JOHN HARLE – Rant!*

Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Ben Glassberg – conductor
Jess Gillam – saxophones*
†Commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

An inspiring fixture on radio and TV, Cumbrian-born Jess Gillam is first and foremost a world-class saxophonist. She brings her invigorating musical personality to a typically adventurous collection of music across diverse styles and sounds for the last of our New Dimensions concerts.

Young British composer Dani Howard wrote her effervescent new Saxophone Concerto specially for Gillam, while Dave Heath throws you into the whirling energy of a raucous ceilidh in his galvanising concerto The Celtic.

Haydn provides the calmer inspiration for Anna Clyne’s scintillating Sound and Fury, written for the SCO in 2019, and also for Caroline Shaw’s mercurial Entr’acte. The great African American composer George Walker, meanwhile, regularly moves listeners to tears with his striking Lyric for Strings.

Click on the button below to purchase ticket.