The overture "Springtime in Berlin" by Kees Vlak was written around the turn of the millennium. He writes them in an atmosphere in which the word "Millenium" always and everywhere appeared. Vlak also expressly notes that he does not mean "spring" literally, but in a figurative sense, as "departure" or "new beginning". His intention was to record in music that after a century that was more often marked by dark sections, spring is now dawning.

The first part of the overture portrays musically t...