Alles waarvoor mensen een podium betreden.
Of course, this is really actually better news than what was already in the coalition agreement. The extra 10 million fought over last year for performing arts institutions that were good enough but fell below the saw line because of running out of money will get structural money added. Good news for a few clubs that would really be out of business otherwise, such as Orkater. The good news...
The AVROTROS Friday Concert cherishes mainstream masterpieces as well as less heard and new repertoire. In the 2017-18 season, no fewer than five (world) premieres are on the programme, three of them composed by a woman. - Come and see that among the national orchestras. Friday 17 November will hear the brand new double concert Together Remember to Dance by British/Bulgarian Dobrinka Tabakova. She composed it on...
In recent years, Toneelgroep Amsterdam's artistic director Ivo van Hove made three performances of works by Couperus. In three short interviews, I look back at the last part, Little Souls. Despite the long meandering sentences and the romantic, sometimes very passive characters, this book (or actually it's four books)is a timeless masterpiece that, as far as I'm concerned, all...
Although Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) is considered one of the most important French composers of the early 20th century, her music is rarely performed. On Friday 10 November, Du fond de l'abîme will be heard in the AVROTROS Friday Concert. A godsend, because this setting of psalm 130 is of a throat-splitting beauty. Boulanger completed the piece in 1917, a year before her death. American conductor James...
In the final part of 'books of little souls', the once disgraced Constance sits in the dark and draughty country house where her reluctant parents-in-law used to live. Constance married their only child, Baron Henri van der Welcke, against their wishes. Constance's and Henri's son Addy is the only thing that connects these two people. Love for each other is never...
These days, we are bombarded to death with opinions on the pros and cons of multiculti. Depending on their political preferences, people are either very enthusiastic or very negative about the increasing 'colourisation' of our society. The gamelan ensemble Gending, the Doelen Kwartet and Het Geluid Maastricht decided to take the bull by the horns. They based Kill the West in Me on feminist letters from...
In February 2017, The Collective combined the radical music of Galina Ustvolskaya with the heavenly chants of Hildegard von Bingen. Less strange than it seems, as both were deeply religious and composed from inner necessity. On Thursday 26 October, Spectra Ensemble places Ustvolskaya alongside Karel Goeyvaerts at Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. Ustvolskaya is well enough known here in the country by now, but who was...
Dutch composer Klaas de Vries (Terneuzen 1944) pairs Stravinskyian clarity with southern sensuality. He nurtures a love for poets like Pablo Neruda and Fernando Pessoa, and his work excels in recognisable melodies and rhythms. 'However innovative, to be communicative, music must always contain a traditional element,' he said. On 28 and 30 November, Asko|Schönberg will play...
Rule of Three is a piece for three dancers: Steven Michel, Julien Josse and Courtney May Robertson. NAH makes the music live, the lighting is by Jan Fedinger and there are some lyrics by Lydia Davis. Rule of Three was released the previous month at De Singel in Antwerp, and its Dutch premiere is today at the Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam....
On the fringes of Amsterdam Dance Event, I saw two music documentaries that expose why this genre is often problematic for the cinephile. Both films have their fine moments, but ultimately fall short for those who desire more than mere information transfer in television format. A sympathetic Goth Are 'friends' electric? is title and big hit (1979) by British synth-pop pioneer Gary Numan,...
9 Plates full of extraordinary sound that won't go unnoticed and unsung. Fatima Al Qadiri - Shaneera (Hyperdub) Durban taxi techno and Arab queer culture come together on this pumping EP. For, on this record, you hear how bare, cold drums chug outrageously under microtonal or game-like synth melody. Heavy in the bass and loose in the underbelly, Al Qadiri breaks gender pigeonholes....
Utrecht's Wolvenplein prison is sort of empty. Anyone who doesn't happen to have a conviction behind them themselves should go there for fun. I did so myself two years ago on an art project about the surveillance society. When I returned on Tuesday, 17 October 2017, for The Prison Monologues, the impression was still there. The...
High up in a posh flat, Lavalu (stage name of Marielle Woltring, Cleveland, Ohio, 1979) recently gave a try-out of her new programme at Eindhoven's FlatFest festival. For the first time now, she will tour without a band, solo with piano, in small venues where there is a good grand piano. On that Sunday afternoon in Brabant, it soon became clear that somewhere, something was...
World-renowned Dutch drummer Han Bennink celebrates his 75th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his ICP Orchestra at Utrecht's Le Guess Who? Festival (LGW). Time for a conversation with a diligent worker. All over the world, Han Bennink is famous. And for him, that whole world is his playground, literally. Bennink started drumming at an early age. Pots...
For centuries, scientists have seen connections between music and the ordering of the universe. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra took this as the starting point for its concert on 19 October in the Horizon series. A 'polyphonic cosmos' is being realised in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam. Peter Eötvös composed the organ concerto Multiversum for this, Rozalie Hirs wrote 'parallel world [breathing]'. Eötvös' piece is experiencing...
Dat je een schoen aan kunt trekken. Maar ook niet. Dat het eigenlijk niet zoveel zin heeft om een schoen aan te trekken, als je hem later op de dag toch ook weer uit zult doen. Why bother? Waarom leven? Herkenbaar? Voor wie ooit in een dip zat wel. Theatergroep Kassys, onlangs nog wereldwijd een hit met ‘Total Eclipse of…
Jetse Batelaan has spent pretty much this entire century making the most extraordinary theatre in the world. At least, of my world. Often with very few words, always with a great sense of bare aesthetics and usually sympathetic with a weird twist halfway through. His latest masterpiece is an adaptation of Thea Beckman's Crusade in Jeans. Though we need at least three quarters of...
Director Ivo van Hove chose the 'books of little souls' cycle as the conclusion of the Couperus triptych at Toneelgroep Amsterdam. He previously directed 'Silent Power' (2015) and 'The things that pass' (2016). Dramaturg Koen Tachelet adapted Couperus' Magnum Opus for the theatre. The books 'The Little Souls', 'The Late Life', 'Twilight of Souls' and 'The Sacred Knowing' together form the cycle 'The Books of...
De Grote Zaal van het Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ is pikdonker. Dan floept een spotlight aan op het eerste zijbalkon rechts. Daar spelen Alexander Sitkovetsky, Maria Milstein, Rosanne Philippens en Jacobien Rozemond drie delen uit Concert voor vier violen van Telemann. Ze eindigen in een freeze, waarna de fluisterzachte, breekbare tonen klinken van Schatten van György Kurtág. We zien alleen…
NDT 1 concludes its triptych Side B: Adrift with Franck Chartier's new The Hidden Floor. After the performance, I literally lose my way. Different worlds "Franck?", I call out. In the rain, an unremarkable man approaches me. Yes, reads the reply from under a cap. It's Franck Chartier, on his way to the studio in...
Bis an der Welt ihr Ende is the poetic title of a CD by Per-Sonat featuring German songs from the time of the Reformation. This ensemble of mezzo-soprano Sabine Lutzenberger focuses on music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. This CD follows the development of German song from church reformer Martin Luther to the composer Johann Hermann Schein....
To his own dismay, Simeon ten Holt became famous as the composer of a single piece: Canto ostinato for four pianos. This composition immediately struck a chord at its world premiere in 1979. It still sounds just about every day somewhere in the world, in all possible line-ups. From 12 to 14 October, the Noord Nederlands Orkest will present a...
Bird sounds are heard from all sides. A song, a chirp. Call and response. The sky is full of them. Yet it's not birds you hear, but five strings. The acoustics of the Amstelkerk are exploited in their best qualities. Creating programmes in a small setting, with a personal choice around a theme. This is what cellist Lidy Blijdorp uses to...
De Rolling Stones spelen 30 september en 15 oktober weer in Nederland. NRC gaf vrijdag vijf redenen om naar hun concerten te gaan. Ik ben al decennia een groot liefhebber; jarenlang verzamelde ik obscure opnamen, las ik boeken en stond ik voor dag en dauw in de rij voor kaarten. Nu ga ik niet meer, en wel hierom. 1. Traag…
Completely unexpectedly, bass-baritone Pieter Vis (1949-2017) died on Thursday 28 September, aged 68. A brain haemorrhage proved fatal to him. Just that morning, he had shared a post on Facebook from the radio programme De Ochtend van Vier. - Under his pseudonym Pyoter Riba, the Russian translation of his name. Since he discovered this social medium, he showed himself to be an enthusiastic user
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