Polish-Dutch Hanna Kulenty (Białystok, 1961) writes music that gets under your skin. Whether it is early works like Fourth Circle for violin and piano (1994), the opera Mother of Black-Winged Dreams about multiple personality syndrome (1995), or more recent compositions like the Viola Concerto (2015) and her Flute Concerto No.3 (2018), irrevocably you are taken on an exhilarating journey with a...
Wiek Hijmans (b. 1967) tirelessly devotes himself to the use of the electric guitar in contemporary composed music. He also likes to be influenced by jazz and rock in his own pieces. On Electric Language, his latest CD, he presents music by eight composers alongside his own Victus. Six pieces were composed especially for him. The disc appeared on the label...
At the end of the nineteenth century, Western music gradually began to come apart at the seams. Composers used more and more dissonances so that the familiar tonality hardly fitted into its shell. From a constant desire for even more expression, the orchestra was expanded with ever new instruments. This led to monster productions such as Gustav Mahler's 'Symphony of the Tausend', with more than a thousand...
The Orphanage of Dutch Music presents monthly 'forgotten Dutch masterpieces' at Amsterdam's Splendor stage. 'To discover the finer points', these are performed twice, interrupted by 'a short commentary or interview with special table guests'. On paper, a golden formula. Rightly so, the Holland Festival adopted three episodes. With the music, during the opening concert on Thursday, it was all in...
Wednesday 5 April kicks off the fifth edition of the biennial World Minimal Music Festival. For five days, the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ will be filled with hypnotic rhythms, trance-inducing melodies and conjuring drones. Alongside well-known works by pioneers such as La Monte Young and Terry Riley are new compositions by Kate Moore and Bryce Dessner. There will also be performances by the Master...
This month, early music pioneer Marijke Ferguson turned 89. She led the adventurous ensemble Studio Laren for 30 years and has been making radio for over 50 years, the last 23 for the Concertzender. Time and again, she manages to intertwine old and new music with pop and world music in an appealing way. On Sunday 11 December, the Concertzender puts her centre stage during...
“Thea, ik móet het nummer van die concertorganisator hebben!”, klonk zijn gebiedende bariton in mijn oor. Bernard van Beurden (1933-2016) belde steevast vanuit Zuid-Frankrijk, waar hij woonde – in Amsterdam had hij een bescheiden pied-à-terre. Ik had hem als muziekjournalist vaker geïnterviewd en leek de aangewezen persoon hem aan informatie uit zijn verre vaderland te helpen. Vervolgens zaten we uren…
Last Sunday, 24 April, clarinetist George Pieterson died at his home in Amsterdam, aged 74. 'George was an iconic player with a big musical heart,' says his former student Frank van den Brink. 'He invariably went full steam ahead and whichever recording you listen to, his playing is always remarkable. You didn't necessarily have to put up with his...
Franz Liszt (1811-1886) werd in eigen tijd vereerd als een ware duivelskunstenaar, die met zijn virtuoze pianospel het hart van menige vrouw op hol deed slaan. Maar vóór alles was hij een vernieuwer, die de ambitie koesterde ‘een speer in de oneindige ruimte van de toekomst te slingeren’. De Concertzender belicht woensdag 2 december twee uur lang leven en werk…
In de jaren zeventig bestormde Reinbert de Leeuw de populaire hitlijsten met plaatopnames van de vroege pianomuziek van Erik Satie. Hij wist met zijn ultratrage uitvoeringen van stukken als Gnossiennes en Gymnopédies precies de juiste snaar te raken. De elpees vlogen als zoete broodjes over de toonbank en werden bekroond met gouden en platina platen. Twee decennia later nam hij ze…
Donderdag 20 augustus start in Kerkrade weer het jaarlijkse Orlando Festival. Dit in 1982 door de cellist Stefan Metz opgezette evenement lokt al ruim drie decennia jonge musici naar Abdij Rolduc om zich te bekwamen in de muziekpraktijk. Vernoemd naar het destijds vermaarde Orlando Kwartet, besteedt het festival van oudsher veel aandacht aan strijkers, maar ook andere instrumenten worden niet vergeten.…
The CD Sax avec Elan! is the latest project by the ever enterprising Amstel Quartet. The four saxophonists made their name with impeccable and inspired performances of contemporary music, but do not shy away from the beaten track. For this CD, they joined forces with French chansonnier Philippe Elan. To my pleasant surprise, the...
In 1969, Reinbert de Leeuw et al's opera Reconstruction caused a huge uproar because of its anti-American tenor and glorification of Cuban freedom fighter Che Guevarra. Journalist Henk van der Meijden started a smear campaign in newspaper De Telegraaf, parliamentary questions were asked, but the production went ahead despite - thanks to ? - all the commotion and Theatre Carré was...
There once was a celebrity (pianist, composer and conductor Reinbert de Leeuw), a biographer (Thea Derks) and a riot. De Leeuw was against the publication of his biography Reinbert de Leeuw: man or melody and made no secret of it. In the TV programme Zomergasten (Summer guests), he even dismissed the dissertation-like standard work as an almost endearing puff piece. Meanwhile...
For seven years, Thea Derks worked on her biography of Reinbert de Leeuw. And it did not go unnoticed. Except for the reaction of the person portrayed, unanimously rave reviews and soon a second edition. Rightly so, as the book offers an indispensable description of modern music in the Netherlands, with many composer portraits and an understandable leading role for Reinbert de Leeuw.
In 2001, when Rotterdam was European Capital of Culture, a number of institutions joined forces and from this, in 2005, the Rotterdam Opera Days born. The aim is to programme innovative musical theatre in the opera house-less Maasstad after all, often in unusual locations. This year the ninth edition will take place, from 17 to 25 May, with the theme 'brotherhood'.
Voor de zoveelste keer in zijn ruim dertigjarig bestaan dreigt de kleurrijke Concertzender ten onder te gaan. Daarom is er op 6 mei een benefietconcert in de Amstelkerk in Amsterdam. Grootheden als Liza Ferschtman, Yuri Honing, Erik Bosgraaf en het Ragazze Kwartet treden gratis op, om de zender te steunen die zoveel live opnames van hun concerten uitzendt. Zelf begon ik er in 1995 mijn carrière als radiomaker, dus ik zou zeggen: komt allen, en doneer ruimhartig! Voor nog geen twee ton per jaar blijft de zender in de lucht.
Reinbert de Leeuw turned seventy-five last September, but already in May the VPRO honoured him with three full-length broadcasts on Radio 4. Together with Aad van Nieuwkerk, I made a selection from his finest recordings of Kagel, Ustvolskaya and Louis Andriessen, among others, about which I also let him speak. This was followed in September by a real Reinbert festival and his own magazine. The magazine not only highlighted him...
Deze maand viert Reinbert de Leeuw zijn vijfenzeventigste verjaardag. Niet alleen wijden televisie, radio, internetmedia en geschreven pers uitvoerig aandacht aan de niet geringe prestaties van deze voorvechter van de hedendaagse muziek, maar ook wordt hij geëerd met een eigen festival, ‘Reinbert 75’. Dit wordt georganiseerd
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