Festival Classique 2009
The Hague, June 2009
The third edition of The Hague's Festival Classique was a tremendous success. A city bathed in sun, capacity audiences at the Hofvijver and fabulous music ensured a superb atmosphere that left an unforgettable impression.
Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder were closely involved in the city's premier classical music festival, with three successive evening receptions featuring music, paintings and entertainment. On Friday 12 June, art historians were invited to a reception at Lange Vijverberg 15, followed by a piano concert by Nino Gvetadze. The festive dinner for special guests on Saturday 13 June was entirely in the theme of A Thousand and One Nights, to match the evening concert: Rimski Korsakov's Shéhérazade. On Sunday 14 June, the weekend came to a fitting conclusion with friends from the Residentie Orkest, which Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder have admired enthusiastically for many years: a splendid final concert echoed across the Hofvijver featuring highlights from famous operas by Rossini, Puccini and Verdi.
Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder look back with pleasure at that special weekend and in fond anticipation towards the fourth edition of Festival Classique, 18, 19 and 20 juni 2010.
De Telegraaf of 17 June 2009 published the following report.
Thousand and One Nights
If Festival Classique is being held at the Hofvijver, literally on your doorstep, you would be crazy if you were a well-known Hague art gallery and failed to invite your contacts for an unforgettable evening. With the emphasis on unforgettable. Because John and his son Willem Jan Hoogsteder never do things by halves.
So after Henri Purcell's short opera Dido and Aeneas, the guests were led out by a bagpipe player heading the traditionally uniformed first-year hunters of the Royal Utrecht Student Society for the Voluntary Exercise of Firearms. Followed by an army of fire-eaters. The entire company marched in procession to the Hoogsteders' fabulously illuminated office on that majestic road, Lange Vijverberg, where dinner was served in a Thousand-and-One-Night atmosphere. "I thought it was only fitting since we would be enjoying a performance of Rimski-Korzakov's Sheherazade by the Residentie Orkest after dinner," explains Willem Jan. Among the guests was Prince Pieter-Christiaan, who lodged in the same Utrecht student house as Hoogsteder junior, as well as former head of ING, Ewald Kist. They are both enthusiastic runners and know each other from various international marathons, such as the New York race.
Of course VVD mayor Jozias van Aartsen and his Henriëtte were also present, as were CDA minister Piet Hein Donner with his wife Marisa and D66 leader Alexander Pechtold with his other half Froukje Idema.
Having also invited PvdA secretary of state Jetta Klijnsma, who had helped set up Festival Classique as councillor in The Hague, Willem Jan Hoogsteder was justified in claiming that "You can't accuse me of political bias."