A Five Day Work Visit To Amsterdam Including A Concertgebouw Evening 23 September 1989

Hotel Krasnapolsky Amsterdam Steven Lek, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Dutch people were friendly, you know they put me up and they fed me…

Amsterdam, Al Stewart

My client was hugely apologetic. The only way they could arrange the three days of meetings in Amsterdam required at a delicate stage of the project I was managing was to schedule a Thursday, Friday and then Monday. They realised that this would be inconvenient for me and of course they were happy to fly me backwards and forwards to London if I wanted to spend the weekend at home or they were happy to put me up and feed me at their expense for the duration, including the weekend.

Young, free and single in September 1989, I was delighted to go for the “stay in Amsterdam at their expense” option.

Please stay at the Kras on our corporate account if you are going to stay that long…

…they said. It would have been rude to say no. I usually stayed for my short stopovers at a more modest place, the Rembrandt Classic I think, preferring the less formal and low key atmosphere.

Once work was done on the Friday evening, the weekend was my own. I didn’t keep a log of this visit but I remember most of the things I did:

• an Indonesian rijsttafel meal on the Friday evening. A rijsttafel for one is a bit of an oxymoron, but the restaurant came highly recommended by my Dutch clients, for good reason;
• Van Gogh Museum;
• Rijksmuseum;
• Rembrandt House;
• Concertgebouw on Saturday evening (see below);
• Anne Frank House (on the Sunday if I remember correctly);
• Lots of strolling around the canals, sitting in coffee bars (the proper posh ones that serve coffee and play classical music), reading my book and feeling terribly sophisticated. I’m sure Mozart Violin Concertos weren’t playing all the time in every coffee shop, but I do remember hearing them more than once. I have, ever since, associated those concertos with this weekend in Amsterdam.

Concertgebouw, 23 September 1989

I was thrilled to be able to score a good ticket at the Concertgebouw “on a whim”. I guess it is that much easier to be lucky and get a single ticket at short notice. I liked the look of the concert and was not disappointed.

I heard/saw the house band (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra aka Koninklijt Concertgebouworkest) conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, with

• Ludwig van Beethoven – Overture “Leonora” Op 72a
• Richard Strauss – Horn Concerto No 2 in E Flat Major
• Antonin Dvorak – Symphony No 7 in D Minor, Op 70

Local lad, Jacob Slagter, was the horn soloist.

I have long-loved the Dvorak’s 7th symphony and was in seventh heaven (did you see what I did there?) at this performance of it.

Here is that very orchestra, but under Colin Davis a few years earlier, playing the Dvorak 7th:

I loved Amsterdam. It is one of the few places in the world, other than London, where I think I could live happily.