Asko|Schönberg opens the new season with the programme The State, at collaboration with Gaudeamus Festival, Ensemble Klang, Muziekgebouw and Musica Festival Strasbourg.
In the 1970s, Louis Andriessen wrote the masterpiece The State. A musical and political rebel, he sent a critical message with this composition. He opposed established musical life and the symphony orchestra in particular. All this was entirely in line with the socio-political struggle that was going on on several fronts at the time. With The State he contributed to the discussion on the place of music in politics. This theme is still relevant today and forms the starting point of the programme The State.
Programme
Asko|Schönberg, together with Gaudeamus Festival, Ensemble Klang, Muziekgebouw and Musica Festival Strasbourg, organises the programme The State. Besides Andriessen's eponymous work, not often heard live, the programme includes a brand new composition by Oscar Bettison. He once studied with Andriessen and is our Composer in Residence this season. His On the slow weather of dreams he wrote commissioned by Asko|Schönberg.
Composers and artists from different countries reflect from their own backgrounds on The State and on the theme 'the influence of the state'. They do so in the form of installations, music, texts and performances presented and performed in this programme.
About Louis Andriessen and The State
Louis Andriessen (1939-2021) is one of the Netherlands' greatest composers with a huge international reputation, creator of an awe-inspiring oeuvre, teacher of a whole generation of leading contemporary composers. He had a close relationship with Asko|Schönberg, which premiered many of his pieces.
The State is Andriessen's personal blend of jazz, avant-garde and minimal music. He did not want to write for a traditional orchestra but rather had something in mind that was somewhere between brass band, choir and rock band. This led to the unusual line-up of four singers, a large core of wood and brass players complemented by electric guitars, bass guitar, pianos, harps and violas. These are divided into two groups with equal instrumentation that compete against each other, building up tremendous tension. The singers perform texts from Plato's Republic of.
B&W photo: LP cover of De Staat by Floris Guntenaar.
About Oscar Bettison and On the slow weather of dreams
British-American composer Oscar Bettison (1975) is writing a new work especially for this programme. He composes from the philosophy of "embracing creative discomfort and storming through challenges with fantastic, imaginative turns". On the slow weather of dreams He wrote for the same cast as The State, like a mirror composition but with a very different atmosphere and different use of the instruments. While composing, Bettison had a recurring dream in the style of Remedios Varo, known for her mysterious, surrealist paintings. He lets this atmosphere shine through in both the music and the lyrics.
Reflections from composers and artists
The organising partners are paying tribute to Louis Andriessen by commissioning a number of artists of diverse disciplines to reflect on The State. Their compositions, (video) installations, (musical) performances and graphic expressions will be featured around the performance of The State and On the slow weather of dreams presented and implemented.
The participating artists - musicians, writers, composers, sound artists, media artists - are:
Pelumi Adejumo, Zeno van den Broek, Thanasis Deligiannis, Cathy van Eck, Joy Guidry, Valérian Guillaume, Ted Hearne, Janne Kosmos, Dmitri Kourliandski, Johannes Kreidler, Moor Mother, Genevieve Murphy, Keir Neuringer, Stephanie Pan, François Sarhan, Maya Verlaak, Jennifer Walshe.
This section of the programme was created in part with the support of the Performing arts fund.
The extensive programme featuring the work of these artists can be seen in Utrecht on the opening night of Gaudeamus Festival (4/9), in the Amsterdam Muziekgebouw (12/9) and at the opening of Musica festival Strasbourg (20/9).
Three more concerts will follow in November with The State and On the slow weather of dreams.
Þ The State - Asko Schoenberg (askoschoenberg.nl)
Wed Sep 4, Utrecht - Gaudeamus Festival
Thu 12 Sep, Amsterdam - Muziekgebouw
Fri Sep 20, Strasbourg - Musica Festival
Wed 13 Nov, Den Bosch - November Music (concert only)
Sun Nov 24, The Hague - Amare (concert only)
Mon Nov 25, Groningen - Sounds of Music (concert only)
Performed by:
Asko|Schönberg
Ensemble Klang
Clark Rundell conductor
with students Conservatorium van Amsterdam
English (UK) 
Nederlands 
Français 
