Musicians in plastic and a rock-hard snare drum - Forty years of orchestra de ereprijs celebrated with 4 new compositions - one for each decade

As an intro, the percussionist of orchestra the erepricing a cadenza of air beats. When he unexpectedly delivered a cutting slap on his snare drum, everyone was shocked. So, with Bewegung ohne Bewegung for cello and ensemble by Jan van de Putte, opened the anniversary concert of the ensemble founded by Wim Boerman in 1979.

Last year, flutist/conductor Wim Boerman was awarded the Theo Bruins Prize for his relentless commitment to talent development and education concerning modern music. In 1979, together with fellow musicians, he founded orchestra the prize of honour in Arnhem. The ensemble is now celebrating its 40th anniversary with four premieres, one for each decade, composed by Martijn Padding, Jan van de Putte, Kate Moore and Wilbert Bulsink.

Volharding

The honorary prizes was the first modern music ensemble in the East of the country. In 1992, it moved to Apeldoorn and has since spread its wings (inter)nationally as well. The orchestra began as a collective of 15 musicians, which, with its line-up of 11 horns, electric guitar, bass guitar, piano and percussion, was somewhat in keeping with Orkest de Volharding in terms of sound.

Like its Amsterdam counterpart, it looked after the honorary prize initially mainly performed at special (outdoor) venues, with pieces composed especially for this line-up. As the compositions became more complex, they started working with conductors and gradually Wim Boerman traded his flute for the baton more and more often.

Eventually, Boerman was appointed artistic director and conductor. In 2005, the Polish and Russian Composers' Union awarded him an oeuvre prize for all his work and efforts. He will step down as permanent conductor at the end of 2020; a successor is still being sought.

Over 100 specially composed pieces a year.

Over the past four decades, the collective built an impressive repertoire of over 400 pieces written especially for them. In 1995, the Young Composers Meeting created, which gives composers under 30 the chance to spend a week working with the musicians on a new composition. All this under the tutelage of such diverse 'senior composers' as Louis Andriessen, Hanna Kulenty, Alvin Curran and Julia Wolfe.

Laureates now include such well-known names as Anna Meredith, Maja Ratke, Dmitri Kourliandski and Kate Moore, which The Heron composed for the three-part anniversary series. The concerts took place at the Orgelpark in Amsterdam (16 November) and Musis Sacrum Arnhem (20 November); the final concert was on Sunday 1 December at theatre De Gigant in Apeldoorn's hometown.

Robot cellist.

The opening composition, with those air beats and snare drum, was a fitting start. Funny after that was the rise of soloist Katarina Gross, who mimicked the percussionist's gestures with her bow, only to walk to her instrument like a robot with staccato steps.

Gross stroked her baton over the strings in decided, short strokes, sighing amiably at the same time. Gradually, she played more elaborate motifs, ending in a cadenza of ever higher, flawlessly played minor intervals, embedded in sustained tones of the ensemble. The title is right on target: everything is happening, yet the whole breathes a motionless atmosphere.

'Inaudible' clavichord.

Padding - for many years involved in the Young Composers Meeting as 'senior composer' - composed the contrary concerto This is a loud world for clavichord and ensemble. Boerman told the audience unctuous about the shrill inaudibility of this favourite Bach instrument. Because of its soft sound, it was necessary to wrap the other musicians in plastic in order to muffle their sound level.

It looked fairytale-like and the piece opened with catchy cracking sounds and blowing on water-filled bottles. Keyboardist Dirk Luijmes proved to be a dryly comic soloist, running his fingers wildly across the keys like a Jerry Lee Lewis of contemporary music and even managing to 'rock' the instrument, as De Volkskrant noted following the world premiere.

'Weeds don't perish'.

Kate Moore presented in The Heron a sound field of long sustained, swelling tones that, while generating beautifully shimmering overtones, failed to hold the attention until the end. Wilbert Bulsink wrote the appealing Trip hazard, in which barrel organ the Busy Drone seemed to want to disrupt the ensemble with abrasive clusters. As this instrument is housed in the Orgelpark in Amsterdam, it sounded off-tape in De Gigant.

After the concert, there were drinks with a fine afterword by board chairman Dingeman Kuilman. He remarked that 'prize of honour' is considered a weed in the plant world and, after an extended laudation on Boerman and his musicians, concluded wittily with the words: 'Weeds do not perish.'

After this, the outgoing artistic director himself announced his successor: the Greek-Dutch composer Aspasia Nasopoulou. In the future, she is going to focus even more on collaborations with musicians from other cultures.

So on to the next 40 years!