Next week on Tuesday, September 29, the 7 Bridges festival in the heart of Amsterdam. It is an initiative of pianist Edward Janning, driving force behind the Erard Ensemble playing on authentic instruments. In five concerts, he takes us past the Amstelkerk on Amstelveld, Museum van Loon and Museum Geelvinck on Keizersgracht, the Stadsarchief on Vijzelstraat and the Goethe Institute on Herengracht. Musically, the festival spans five centuries, from recorder music by Jacob van Eyck from the 17e century, performed by Erik Bosgraaf, to a brand new piece by Mathilde Wantenaar for the Erard Ensemble on Sunday 4 October.
Born in 1993, Wantenaar studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music with Willem Jeths, composer of the fatherland. She is a true talent and has already been awarded several times. In 2012, for instance, she received the encouragement prize in the competition for female composers from music publisher Donemus and two years later she won both the first prize and the audience award in the Alba Rosa Viëtor competition. For the festival's final concert, she wrote Twilights in the Evening Land for clarinet, cello and piano. A premiere to look forward to.
Wantenaar's new piece will have to compete with not the least, as it stands alongside Brahms' Clarinet Quintet and Vier Stücke for clarinet and piano by Alban Berg. The programme will also feature the Sechs kleine Klavierstücke with which his teacher Arnold Schoenberg tentatively explored atonality in 1913 and Langsamer Satz for string quartet by Anton Webern, whose centenary of death was commemorated last week. I am curious to see how Wantenaar's lyrical music holds up among the work of these giants.
Haunting the Basel
Also noteworthy is the concert on Friday 2 October at Museum van Loon, which is larded with contributions from cartoonist Typex and ends with a jam session by recorder player Erik Bosgraaf and harpsichordist Carsten Schmidt. And on Saturday 3 October, the treasury of the Amsterdam City Archives in the imposing 'Basel' will be the setting for Conte fantastique by André Caplet, based on a horror story by Edgar Allan Poe. This will be recited by the unsurpassed baritone Mattijs van de Woerd. Goosebumps guaranteed.
For a list of all concerts, click here.
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