Violin Concerto

NRC Handelsblad
"Do you recognize van der Aa if he’s composing unplugged? Straight away! Sharp cutting sounds interrupt the brittle cantilena presented by the soloist accompanied by harp and winds. There’s a built-in nervous energy... The third movement is a virtuoso showpiece for Jansen and the percussion section, an area where van der Aa’s writing excels."

De Trouw
"It’s a real concerto; a musical duel between the soloist and the orchestra with challenging music for both partners. The skill of van der Aa’s writing and his musical approach is in a word ‘sensational’ with an immediately recognizable personal style."

Broad Street Review
“Here’s one way to describe Michel van der Aa’s Violin Concerto, which received its North American premiere this weekend: utterly captivating. Violinist Janine Jansen joined Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra in a performance of a thought-provoking work that’s breathtaking in scope and enjoyable on every level.”

New York Classical Review
“remarkable … van der Aa writes with purpose. His music is angular, but not self-consciously so; its sharp edges and spiny tonality excite rather than feeling like ostentatious gesture.”

New York Times
“The orchestra is less an accompanist or combatant than a full collaborator in a kind of shifting synergy — now taking its cues and motivic material from the soloist, now driving the soloist to greater heights of passionate expression.”

“a scintillating work”

Concertonet
“Delight, virtuosic glee and demonic radiance.”