Old or new, classic or modern, minimal or world. Pop. Tonal and atonal.
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...
The Great Hall of the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ is pitch dark. Then a spotlight flashes on the first side balcony on the right. There, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Maria Milstein, Rosanne Philippens and Jacobien Rozemond play three movements from Telemann's Concert for four violins. They end in a freeze, after which the whisper-soft, fragile tones sound from Treasures by György Kurtág. We only see...
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...
The Rolling Stones will play in the Netherlands again on 30 September and 15 October. NRC on Friday gave five reasons to go to their concerts. I have been a big fan for decades; for years I collected obscure recordings, read books and queued up for tickets before dawn. Now I no longer go, and here's why. 1. Slow...
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
On Thursday 19 October, Peter Eötvös will conduct the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Dutch premiere of his organ concerto Multiversum, which he commissioned for the company. His brand new composition is flanked by works by György Ligeti and Claude Vivier. Transylvania's rich musical tradition Hungarian composer and conductor Peter Eötvös (Székelyudvarhely, 1944) grew up in Transylvania. Towards the end of...
On Sunday 10 September, the Gaudeamus Award for composers under 30 was presented in TivoliVredenburg. Winner was Dutch guitarist, composer and instrument designer Aart Strootman (1987). He was chosen from five nominees and received the prize from jury member Christopher Trapani. The jury also included Joe Cutler and Mayke Nas. Like last year, Gaudeamus invited its...
The Gaudeamus Music Week seems to have definitely left behind the stage of thorough but audience-unfriendly 'bleep-grunt'. The renowned festival of new music will present 129 compositions from 32 countries over five days. Asko|Schönberg and Cappella Amsterdam kicked off Wednesday 6 September with a motley variety of styles. Thus, the opening concert was a measure of what modern music lovers could expect up to...
You expect a lot from a festival dedicated to early music, but not contemporary music theatre. Yet that is exactly what artistic director Xavier Vandamme has in store for us. On Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 August, street theatre group Kamchátka presents Musica Fugit, a performance about refugees. Visitors become part of the story. This way, they experience for themselves what it means when fleeing is a...
Especially for our regular readers and subscribers, temporarily available for everyone to view: the e-book with all the stories about Theatre Festival Boulevard 2017 listed. Members and subscribers can also download the book, and read it on their e-reader.
Wine tasting and listening to medieval music are usually things people only do with very serious faces. So it took five glasses, three drunken singers and a good hour before the mob in the sober Heilig Hart church in Den Bosch loosened up a bit. With a Frontignan to boot. You do start fantasising about the amazing dinner you had at...
It seems like line soup to declare an album Plate of the Year after about six months. However, Felicia Atkinson's 'Hand in Hand' is at least the album of the past few months and of this moment. And the best part is: it will also effortlessly keep you entertained for the rest of the year. Whispering 'Record of the Year' is...
When he was given a car to play with as a child, you wouldn't hear or see him all day. Because he does love people and likes to perform, but off-stage rapper Glenn de Randamie (32), aka Typhoon, prefers to be by himself. Then he has peace, humour and creativity for ten. 'The more alone I...
[This post was already online under the title 'Save us from the Transition Office', but has been updated in a few details] While you are preparing for a well-deserved holiday, people in the arts sector are working on a new model. That new model is needed because the old model is no longer adequate. That old model, and we are of course talking about our...
The three-part CD box set of choral and ensemble works by György Kurtág is, in a word, overwhelming. His soul-transcending sounds are sublimely interpreted by Reinbert de Leeuw et al. The recording, too, is impeccable. This box set is already historic, a monument to the Hungarian grandmaster, who turned 91 last February. Kurtág's existentialist music was played in our country as early as the mid-1970s,...
Devoting a passion to a fairy tale character? American composer David Lang does not shy away from it. He based his choral work the little match girl passion on a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. On Thursday 6 July, it will be performed by the Nederlands Kamerkoor in the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. The concert is part of the Choral Biennale and will be enlivened by...
The advantage of being a subscriber to Culture Press is, of course, mainly that we can exist thanks to you. So our independent sound remains audible, so you get the interpretation of the news as you get it nowhere else. In June, a total of 14 authors hit the road for you to see as many Holland Festival performances as possible....
Smoothly they descend the stairs of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Lucas and Arthur Jussen are dressed to kill. With their fussy-cut, see-through costumes, they have already won their first battle before they have even played one note of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Mantra. Not only in their outfits, but also in their quirky playing, the young pianists show guts. Lovely, such a...
Lucas and Arthur Jussen are 'hot'. You could call the young piano brothers the headliner of this Holland Festival Proms. Well before the start of their concert, visitors are therefore already gathering in the corridors around the main hall of the Concertgebouw. Everyone is out for a good seat. To sit, because standing, as we know it from...
Setan Jawa is the latest film by prominent Indonesian director Garin Nugroho (b. 1961). It is a 'silent' film, shot in black and white by Teoh Gay Hian. It was shown at the Muziekgebouw aan t IJ during the Holland Festival last weekend. The music to the film is played live by Rahayu Supanggah Gamelan Orchestra and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. Inspired...
On Wednesday 20 June, Kajsa Ollongren launched the website Forbidden Music Regained at the Uilenburgersjoel in Amsterdam. The capital's deputy mayor and alderman for culture quoted astronaut Neil Armstrong, calling the project 'a giant step for mankind'. She continued, "The website is also important for the city of Amsterdam, because we cannot and must not forget what happened in our city seventy years ago.
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