Mahler in Amsterdam, 15 May 2025

Our Hayllar Music Tours visit to Amsterdam hit day 7 today and it was a busy one. This morning we made our way (by coach) to The Hague, and had a fascinating couple of hours at the Mauritshuis. This 17th century building contains a beautiful collection of mainly 17th century Dutch paintings, the most famous of which is Vermeer's Girl with the Pearl Earring. There are also a number of significant works by Rembrandt and Rubens.

We then had a stunning lunch at a very upmarket Greek-inspired restaurant before heading to our second guided tour at the Panorama Mesdag. This was brilliant but I can't begin to describe it here. Check out the website: https://panorama-mesdag.nl/en/

In the late afternoon we returned to our hotel in Amsterdam for a brief rest before I gave my seventh talk, after which we made our nightly pilgrimage to the Concertgebouw.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Jaap van Zweden were on the stage again, following up their Mahler 6 from last night with Mahler 7 tonight. I find this a difficult work to love; it strikes me as more of a suite than a symphony. But there's no doubting the CSO gave it an incredible performance, making its endless challenges look easy.

The pics here are from the Mauritshuis.

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