Three extraordinary soloists could be heard on March 30 and 31, 2023, in the Großer Sendesaal. The Skride sisters and Harriet Krijgh brought no less a piece than Beethoven’s Triple Concerto.
© NDR, Photo: Helge Krückeberg
As the soloist in Camille Saint-Saëns’ First Cello Concerto, Harriet Krijgh was unquestionably the center of attention, while the Graz Philharmonic exercised – finely accented and as colorful as it was sonorous – restraint, ensuring that the soloist was never in danger of being overshadowed by the orchestra. Her playing captivated with a compelling mix of emotion and verve, and the richness of color she drew from her instrument literally made the air in the hall shimmer.
Krijgh’s technical sovereignty, which she demonstrated most impressively in the cadenza of the second movement, was not merely an end in itself, but acted like a declamatory scene of an actor in a drama. With an elegantly presented encore – the Sarabande from Bach’s First Cello Suite – Krijgh finally bid farewell to the Graz audience before the intermission.
Isabella Steppan, June 23, 2022
Sound Adventures Then and Now: Contemporary Works from Ukraine, Avant-Garde from 1830, and a Grand Cellist at the Musikverein.
The encore was almost the best part: Harriet Krijgh interpreted the Sarabande from Bach’s
Cello Suite No. 1 as an elegantly contemplative piece born from silence. Krijgh also had a high-quality performance in Camille Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1. Free from sentimentality and precise, lean and emphatic, the Dutchwoman unfolded its sound cosmos.
Martin Gasser
Kleine Zeitung Graz
Nordmagazin – 04.07.2019 19:30 Uhr
Cellist Harriet Krijgh is a star of the classical music scene and celebrates successes worldwide. This year, the Dutch musician is an award recipient at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival.
Source: ndr.de
The 27-year-old cellist Harriet Krijgh exulted in an extraordinary performance as a soloist of Saint-Saëns cello concerto in A minor: uplifting was the extensive, warm, faultless tone, her proficiency at endless, intimate phrases, and her never overpowering, charming and convincing presence, owing to her precious instrument as well.
Krijgh, Gimeno and the Symphoniker succeeded in offering a refreshing rendition of a valuable piece of music which often suffers from being referred to a musical
category of “ nice voices, nice melodies”.
For this concert the also in this country underestimated Saint Saëns attributed an emancipated role to the cello which Harriet Krijgh was able to wonderfully engage herself with.
Harriet Krijgh performed Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major at the Grant Park Music Festival.
…Harriet Krijgh has been making the rounds of major U.S orchestras in recent seasons, and the young Dutch cellist served up a notable local bow in music of Haydn.
Like many early Haydn concertos, his Cello Concerto in C major has feet planted in two musical eras. The first movement’s stately ripieno alternation is a vestige of Baroque style while the slow movement and bravura finale point the way forward to the Classical, and even Romantic eras.
Krijgh possesses a remarkable technique, which remained intact even on a moist, humid evening, and she performed with faultless intonation and even articulation. It certainly didn’t hurt to be playing Haydn’s concerto on a magnificent, nearly 500-year-old instrument; her 1620 Giovanni Paolo Maggini cello, on private loan, offered striking richness and depth with a wide range of tonal hues…
Click here for the LINK to the article.
Source: chicagoclassicalreview.com
Photo: Norman Timonera
★★★★½ English masterpieces by Elgar and Vaughan Williams in superbly played programme.
The solo part in Elgar’s Cello Concerto was played by the young Dutch cellist Harriet Krijgh. Though her tone is not as full as some of the great cellists who have essayed this work (notably Jacqueline Du Pre, whom she somewhat resembles in looks), her pitch was sure and she projected the solo line strongly into the house. This late work contains a built-in strain of melancholy that was never over-emphasised in Krijgh’s rendition: she produced a line of seamless lyrical beauty in the first movement, great delicacy and immaculate control in the scherzo (matched by the orchestra), then more openly heartfelt phrasing in the slow movement and the concerto’s touching coda.
It was an impressive performance that will only grow more personal and deeply felt with time. Spano and the orchestra’s contribution proved a great asset; to take just one instance, they made a sharp point of Elgar’s offbeat accented chords in the finale. Overall, this was not just a fascinating program but a genuine showcase for the orchestra, and a wonderful introduction to an expressive young cellist.
20.04.2017 Limelight Magazine (Australia)
Cellist Harriet Krijgh, who studied at the Kronberg Academy, and conductor Dominik Beykirch, mesmerized with their debut in the Frankfurt HR-Sende Hall.
With a for this age rare sovereignty the young cellist, who received her education in Vienna and at the Kronberg Academy, fully brought to life Kabalewski’s first cello concerto in G minor opus 49. She made her instrument sing marvelously and found for her performance just the right balance between sensitivity and seriousness. Nothing was academically dry or pathetically overdone. The beguiling tone of her 400 year old cello from the workshop of Giovanni Paolo Maggini exuded music in its purest form. The audience present was spellbound by the virtuosity of the young musician and applauded so enthusiastically after the fascinating interpretation of the Russian work, that Harriet had to calm down the emotions. That she managed to do so felicitously with a quietly swaying Sarabande by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Voice from the audience
A riveting evening, that stirred enthusiasm in the audience. One of the euphoric listeners in the Sende Hall was the Frankfurt student Rosina Sfyridou. For her the evening was “”Balm for the soul”. She summarizes her impressions as follows: “the talented Dutch cellist Harriet Krijgh was, besides the emerging conductor Dominik Beykrich, the centrepoint of the evening. In her beguiling blue dress she literally sat in the middle of attention, even more accentuated by her central position in the Sende Hall in Frankfurt. It was fascinating to see with how much feeling she embraced her 400 year old cello. With full physical intention she felt herself through each series of tone, however complex. One could not only see and hear her but it could be fully sensed what she intended to express. With the Sarabande by Johann sebastian Bach as encore a sensation of peace filled the hall. I closed my eyes, breathed deeply, and all that burdened me fell away. When I opened my eyes once again, I saw that sound and vision found themselves in perfect harmony. It was not only an outstanding concert, but also an extraordinary experience at a student friendly price”.