Mariss Jansons conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra — With Janine Jansen, Thomas Hampson and Lang Lang

The Concertgebouw was officially inaugurated on April 11, 1888 (though the first concert would not be held until November 3). Public interest was so great that Amsterdam experienced its very first traffic jam (of carriages). 125 years later, during the month of April 2013, the RCO and the Concertgebouw organized an anniversary concert together.

Under the baton of chief conductor Mariss Jansons, the orchestra welcomes three popular guest soloists: Lang Lang performing Prokofiev's virtuoso Piano Concerto No. 3 (third movement), Janine Jansen playing Saint-Saëns's Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (one of the violinist's most beloved scores, a rendition rapturously received in the Concertgebouw hall) and Thomas Hampson singing Lieder by Gustav Mahler. Musicians from the RCO, the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks also join forces for a performance of the Elégie from Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings. The concert, which opens with a prelude from The Master-Singers of Nuremberg by Wagner, closes with Richard Strauss's orchestral suite for Der Rosenkavalier. Like Mahler, Strauss conducted the orchestra many times during his career.