'Where is that sound coming from anyway?' I heard someone whisper behind me. Right above the audience, I saw a man playing tubular bells, idiophones and other percussion. Behind the stand of 1,000 people, a piano resonated. A celesta sounded in the corner of the Gashouder. Different sounds travelled around the venue like the earth makes its round in starry skies. It created an unusually spatial overall experience for the visitors, who sat in a semicircular circle around the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
This unusual spectacle was the world premiere of Piano Concerto no. 2: Circulus: a piano concerto that composer Robin de Raaff wrote especially for master pianist Ralph van Raat. The round shape of the Gashouder was the specific space for which de Raaff wrote it. In 2001, de Raaff's first Piano Concerto premiered, now van Raat was once again the soloist, but this time in De Raaff's second piano concerto.
Van Raat is no stranger to the Holland Festival. In 2012, he performed with Out of The Box. He was also the winner of the Ovation 2019 for his Louis Andriessen programme, with whom he has collaborated extensively. He is a lecturer at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, a musicologist and pilots propeller planes in his spare time.
He runs hot for of new, atonic and experimental pieces of music that most of his Conservatory colleagues would not dare to interpret. I also noticed his enthusiasm for this piece last night at the Westergasbord in the Gashouder.
Sky vault
De Raaff was under the stars with his baby daughter on the island of Crete when he wrote this piece. One evening, they looked at the sky, where they discerned Sagittarius, which was his star sign, and the constellation Scorpio, which belonged to his mother. In that moment, he describes, he experienced what a generation means, with his daughter by his side. It felt like the circle of his life. He wanted to take this idea to the round Gas Holder.
The stars of Crete translated into the reverberation of Van Raat's piano and were absorbed into the Gashouder's celestial vault. The opening piece sounded like it was a day waking up. Then the Orchestra began to play. Almost never did the instruments play at the same time. The layering of the piece made me prick up my ears. Spectators were on the edge of their seats to take in the layers of the powerful musical piece and the points of light that formed the stars. By juxtaposing different musical layers, De Raaff created variety and depth. It was a wonderful world of magical sounds. In addition, light installations and canvases in the Gashouder also stimulated the other senses.
3D orchestration
I had never experienced such a spatial and sensory overall experience before. The listener next to me agreed. He said it made him think of Karlheinz Stockhausen, who, like de Raat, was inspired by Schönberg's twelve-tone technique. Van Raat managed to turn that inspiration into beautiful impressionist atmospheric paintings.
The 3D orchestration, with percussion on different sides of the orchestra, a second piano and a celesta, made the concert a total experience. The only pity was that the piece lasted only 35 minutes. It could have gone on for hours for me. I think that says enough about the power of this innovative world premiere.
Intense sound experience
In addition to the new composition Circulus was Coro by Italian composer Luciano Berio will be performed. The composer himself conducted it for the 1977 Holland Festival. Both pieces require a lot of production knowledge and expertise, making them difficult to create outside Holland Festival. Coro consists of 40 duos, a singer from the Groot Omroepkoor led by choral conductor Benjamin Goodson and a fantastically expressive flutist from the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
The rich sound spectrum in the Gashouder's space setup also suited Coro. The music usually rose above the singing. Coro, however, stuck out, as it turned out, at the spaciousness of Circulus.
Some attendees walked out or had already left after Van Raat's premiere. Myself can't wait to once again take in the sounds of the composer's canopy.
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