Rapper Sor brought excitement, rapture and emotion to the large hall of the Concertgebouw on Thursday evening, where he had his music performed by a 53-piece orchestra, the ‘Sorkest’. The combination of rap with an orchestra was a discovery: how silky-smooth strings laid a floating foundation for Sor’s pronounced voice, and how Sor’s singing in turn seemed to energize the musicians. While rap often floats on heavy rhythms, a tender setting is just as effective. The sonic supremacy of 53 musicians on violin, wind instruments, percussion and piano, spanning the full width of the stage, gave Sor’s songs a new kind of grandeur. Without electronic thumping but no less monumental.
The Sorkest consists of musicians and singers from the Codarts music school in Rotterdam. The reason Sor now performed in the Concertgebouw was because he finished the TV program last January Maestro has won. There he learned to conduct an orchestra, as he showed on Thursday evening in one song, ‘III Nostro Incontro Sonata’.
The combination was suddenly obvious to everyone: for the musicians and for the many hip-hop fans in the sold-out hall. Songs from Sor’s recent albums Bae Doven No. 1 and no. 2, were already accompanied by an orchestra, for both quotes by Beethoven and pieces created by himself. Live, a shuffling piece of hip-hop electronics was sometimes added, with exciting effect. Funny was the marimba solo crossed with a cartoon voice, like a contest in helium-esque airiness.
Also read the interview with Sor: ‘If Beethoven and Mozart were making music now, it would be hip-hop’
Guest singers like Ray Fuego, Sef and Rotjoch, and the members of his own former group Black Acid took turns playing supporting roles in songs like ‘Karma’ and ‘Kokobe’. Wibi Soerjadi played his self-written ‘Wibi’s Interlude’.
After the last song, Sor was hugged long and furiously by his guest musicians. As if he had won a game on his own.