Olga dances across the keys, confidently absorbed in the overwhelming beauty of the orchestra, long trembling like an elated thrush. [...] The way Baigent mightily drags the orchestra along is marvelous
-Leidsch Dagblad

Especially for the AVROTROS Friday night concert, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century brings a thoroughly romantic program. Beethoven is flanked in this concert by two female composers: Clara Schumann and Emilie Mayer. And none other than Olga Pashchenko will perform the solo piano parts. Pashchenko will play on her own instrument for this program.

Although Clara Schumann is quite well-known in the Netherlands, Emilie Mayer does not immediately ring a bell with many concertgoers. In German-speaking countries, however, she is seen as the female Beethoven. She began composing late in life, but wrote an impressive eight symphonies, an opera and many songs and chamber music. The unknown overture that the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century plays tonight is a whirlwind of highs and lows and seems almost to be intended as an ode to Beethoven.