Asko|Schönberg in the NTR Saturday matinee - Around Unsuk Chin

World premiere by young composer Thomas van Dun commissioned by Asko|Schönberg, master pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard in György Ligeti's Piano Concerto and Unsuk Chin finds her inspiration on the streets.

In 2008 and 2009, Korean composer Unsuk Chin visited Hong Kong and Guangzhou. The atmosphere of the old residential areas with their narrow, winding alleys, marketplaces and food vendors reminded her of the Seoul of her childhood, where itinerant street performers created commotion with dance and music. In Gougalōn Chin transformed those memories into a theatrical score, in which she has the ensemble play for shabby street orchestra. The percussionists use empty bottles and tin cans, among other things. Also for her chamber orchestra work Graffiti Chin was inspired by the street. In the three-movement work for chamber orchestra, layers of sound overlap as tags and pieces in a graffiti mural.

From Chin's teacher György Ligeti, the magisterial Piano concerto, with none other than Ligeti specialist Pierre-Laurent Aimard as soloist.
The brand new composition Rocailles de l'après-vie...*) by Dutch composer Thomas van Dun shows affinity with Ligeti's work and his use of vast sound fields and clouds of sound textures. For this piece, Van Dun was inspired by two fascinations: the space and infinity of the universe and the lush ornamentation of the Rococo style. Van Dun wrote his work commissioned by Asko|Schönberg

*) Made possible with support from Fonds Podiumkunsten and Stichting Reinbert de Leeuw