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...
That there is an extremist magazine about burnings and beheadings, and that rich Britons have four-storey basements built under their houses for a private cinema or bowling alley - we learned a lot last night at the International Literature Festival Utrecht (ILFU). The programme of the Saturday night of the ILFU was as richly varied as that of the first evening. The...
Op 4 maart 2016 verscheen haar debuut-cd Varmints, een mengeling van nieuw-klassiek, elektronica en avant-pop, waarna de Schots-Canadese Anna Meredith (1978) met lof werd overladen. ‘Een van de meest vernieuwende geesten in moderne Britse muziek’, schreef een criticus. ‘Levendig en caleidoscopisch’, schreef een ander. ‘Uitzonderlijke soundscapes van synthesizers, beats en andere dingen’ repte een derde. Een vierde had het gevoel…
At the 19th edition of the Holland Animation Film Festival, versatility celebrates. From abstract to documentary. Special attention also to the connection between animation and installation art.
As I wrote in my earlier article about the Nederlandse Dansdagen, choreographer Loïc Perela won this year's Nederlandse Dansdagen Maastricht Prize. It earned him 12,000 euros to put into his new project HASHTAG. The award has helped some previous winners on their way (Monique Duurvoort, Joost Vrouenraets, Erik Kaiel, Muhanad Rasheed, Joeri Dubbe,...
Thursday 20 August sees the start of the annual Orlando Festival again in Kerkrade. Established in 1982 by cellist Stefan Metz, this event has been luring young musicians to Rolduc Abbey for over three decades to train in musical practice. Named after the then renowned Orlando Quartet, the festival traditionally pays close attention to strings, but other instruments are not forgotten either....
Two men in a cage. Super trained and muscular to the marrow. Small gloves, bit in, tok on for protection. Scantily clad except for bermuda shorts. Some reinforcing tape wrapped around a joint here and there. At Stockholm's Tele2 Arena, a 30,000-plus crowd screams like mad. This modern gladiatorial spectacle is the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Some people default to shooting banjos, others want to attack the music with booms and pitchforks. The fact remains that hipsters are running away with it. What is it about 'folk' and why does it keep coming back? 1-Folk is the basis of all Folk, Irish and Scottish but also American, was from the 1960s to sometime in the mid-80s....
With a new government in Belgium, the debate on art subsidies has also erupted there. The issue there is only 0.7 per cent of the national budget. The cut of a mere 10% is less substantial than in the Netherlands under the PVV's noose, but the arguments are the same. Though they are often better articulated. Josse de Pauw, international...
By Melle Daamen 'What do you want then?' was a question I received quite often in response to my articles last year in NRC, in which I expressed my concerns about the state of the arts in the Netherlands and especially its future. I argued for a fundamental debate from within the arts sector itself, focusing on the future, including...
I published two articles in NRC Handelsblad last year. The first (6 July 2013) was critical of government policy. There was little reaction to this. The second article (7 December 2013) was critical of the arts sector: it needs to make its own sharp choices. That did cause a stir, although I am convinced that many colleagues largely agree with the content...
Declining visitor numbers, shrinking subsidies, impoverished programming: most Dutch theatres are struggling, research by NRC Handelsblad recently showed. Theatres welcomed 12 million visitors in 2012, according to NRC figures, a quarter less than in 2008. Festivals, on the other hand, are on the rise. More and more are being organised, and they are attracting more and more people - in total...
It seems like a statement, opening the latest Holland Festival under Pierre Audi's direction with 'Vortex Temporum'. The collaboration between the two top Belgian ensembles Rosas and Ictus does everything that is scarce in the present day.
After seven concert seasons, the broadcasting series takes 'The Friday of Vredenburg' farewell to emergency venue Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn, better known as 'The Red Box'. From September, the concerts will again take place in the restored Great Hall of the otherwise brand-new TivoliVredenburg. The concert on 6 June will feature the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Groot Omroepkoor, conducted by Antony Hermus. They will play music by Beethoven, Richard Strauss and a brand new piece by Wim Laman, Requiem Songs.
The Valley of Astonishment. Titles don't come much prettier than that of 'The Valley of Astonishment'. Theatre legend Peter Brook's tentative last play is coming to Amsterdam. The Holland Festival gave me and two journalists from Parool and NRC, respectively, the opportunity to talk to the already legendary director when he was alive. Pretty special, because the man who enchanted an entire generation of theatre-makers and audiences with performances such as the nine-hour Mahabharata in Avignon, is considered a deity among theatre connoisseurs and enthusiasts.
Ook al breekt vandaag nog de oorlog uit, straaljagers zullen er niet meer landen. 200.000 bezoekers per jaar hebben ze nu minimaal nodig, op Soesterberg. De voormalige vliegbasis in het hart van Nederland, waar tot 2009 een squadron F15 straaljagers paraat stond om de toenmalige vijand, de communisten, een lesje te leren, komt in handen van het publiek. De projectontwikkelaar legt er de laatste hand aan het Militair Luchtvaartmuseum. Kleine delen van de vijf kilometer lange landingsbaan worden omgeploegd, en een paar hangars krijgen een bestemming als bergplaats van kunst.
Dat wij een toonladder hebben zoals we die hebben, en dat we bepaalde akkoorden als mooi ervaren, komt omdat we dat hebben geleerd. En wat we hebben geleerd is het gevolg van afspraken. Er bestaat in de muziek, net als in de beeldende kunst of in het theater, geen absoluut ideaal waarnaar de kunstenaars moeten streven. Geen absolute schoonheid, geen goddelijke vonk, geen hemel waarnaar we allemaal terugverlangen, slechts een setje afspraken.
Even before she graduated from mime school, Boukje Schweigman swore off language. She worked out a wordless philosophy in her performances. She seeks the mystery of life. However vast and elusive her starting points may be, her performances give the audience the most direct, immediate, skin-tight sensation imaginable in a theatre.
Jet Bussemaker is satisfied. For the next few years, there will be little whining about the subsidies under her regime. She states this in her letter this weekend. After all, the basis of the system is fixed: there are great museums, symphony orchestras, opera and theatre clubs whose subsidies are cast in concrete. Or rather carved from classical marble, because money gets you
“Ik ben heel benieuwd naar de reacties van het publiek. Mensen hebben altijd een beeld bij een festival. Die komen, en verwachten dat ze van alles mee kunnen maken. Wat je hier krijgt is het terrein, een ontdekkingstocht en een verhaal dat daardoor naar boven komt. De belangrijkste energie die er op en om dit terrein heerst is: ‘Ik mag erop, en wat is er dan allemaal?’ Op die energie wil voortbouwen.”
'The Pyre', the latest show from internationally rising star Gisèle Vienne, initially seems less disturbing than her previous work. Pieces like 'Jerk' (2008), based on the true story of a young serial killer, and 'This is how you will disappear' (2010), starring a dark forest, were only seen in a few places in the Netherlands. Hopefully, this performance at the Holland Festival will change that. Gisèle Vienne once studied harp, then philosophy and eventually trained as a puppeteer. But Vienne sees herself primarily as a visual artist working with time, on a stage, where different rhythms, motifs and figures come together.
At his 53e can Willem Jeths boasts an impressive career. His orchestral and chamber music works are performed worldwide and have been recorded on many CDs. In 2008, the newly built Muziekkwartier in Enschede opened with his opera Hotel de Pékin, and three years later the recording of his ode to gay marriage reached Monument to a Universal Marriage even US President Obama. At the request of the Saturday Matinee Jeths wrote his First Symphony for the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the mezzo-soprano Karin Strobos, which will premiere it at the Concertgebouw on 13 April.
Het Nederland-Rusland jaar gaat van start en waar kun je beter mee dan beginnen dan met een expositie gewijd aan de beroemdste Rus allertijden? In
A sound engineer making deafening sounds on stage with wads of paper. Puppetry that flows seamlessly into film projections and singers dubbed by actors. A primitive stage on stage that is, however, high tech. A performance in one of the largest halls in our country, but reminiscent of a flat-floor performance. A flat floor that can move in all directions, though, and could just as easily be a slope or a ceiling, that is.
Amsterdam, 10-10-2012 - Already last summer, the Dutch Chamber Choir (NKK) through our country, working with amateur choirs at surprise station concerts to draw the general public's attention to its seventy-fifth anniversary. In the coming weeks, this anniversary will be celebrated with a series of concerts in seven different cities, under the recruiting title 'A tradition of renewal'.
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