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György Ligeti

Two unique (dance) productions created in pandemic Tears of Peter and the National New Year's Blessing

Two unique (dance) productions created in a pandemic: Tears of Peter and the National New Year's Blessing

It is remarkable to see two productions bringing together dance and faith in a short time. Dancer Marijn Rademaker (former soloist Het Nationale Ballet) portrays the suffering of the apostle in Di Lasso's Tears of Petrus by Nederlands Kamerkoor and Dance Company Nanine Linning, dancer and recently assistant artistic director of The Dutch Don't Dance Division Kiran Bonnema portrays the change in the life of the still-young patriarch Jacob in EO's National New Year's Blessing.

#Corona-classics 4 Hannes Minnaar: 'I rolled into the frame of classical-romantic piano virtuoso'

Hannes Minnaar falls head over heels. His #corona tour with Bach's Goldberg Variations starts on 1 July, exactly the day when the maximum number of concert visitors is released. - Provided 1.5 metres distance et cetera. Although the Grote Kerk in Zwolle can admit considerably more than 100 people, the concert is already completely sold out. Those lucky enough to get a... 

Joy of life and icy constriction. Ensemble Modern performs striking world premieres by female composers during November Music

Ensemble Modern presents world premieres by German-Dutch Iris ter Schiphorst and Turkish Zeynep Gedizlioğlu in November Music. And that is good news, because the female composer remains too often invisible even in 2019. In the brochures of any Dutch orchestra, you will find none, or only a single work by a woman. On the new Heart & Soul list of... 

Reinbert de Leeuw showered with honours on his 80th birthday

Accompanied by Asko|Schönberg, Katja Herbers sings parts from Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, Reinbert's adaptation of classics by Schubert and Schumann. The poignant lyrics get a witty twist in the last song. In 'Röslein auf der Heiden', the 'victim' is not the fragile little flower from the original but Reinbert himself. "Und der wilde Knabe brach Reinbert auf der Heiden; Reinbert wehrte... 

Panic is contagious, sex is not. About my anxious hours during and after Sex and Anxiety at the @hollandfestival.

Panic. On the tram between Leidseplein and Amsterdam Centraal, I suddenly lost the Dutch translation of 'string quartet'. So I typed 'violin quartet' into my facebook update, trying to make a connection between a blow job and Ligeti. Joking, perhaps, but there was something much deeper behind it, in that tram, after the music and theatre event 'The String Quartet's... 

Ligeti festival - tribute to adventurous and idiosyncratic composer

Hungarian composer György Ligeti (1923-2006) suffered under several dictatorships; the Nazis killed his father and brother during World War II, and after the War the communists forced him to write sweet 'folk music'. After the 1956 Hungarian uprising, he fled to Vienna and then to Cologne. In the West, he unpopularised into an idiosyncratic composer, who already... 

Silvia Colasanti: 'My string quartet is about the beauty and nostalgia of Rome'

Whether flowing melodies, driving rhythms or dense clouds of sound, the music of Silvia Colasanti (Rome, 1975) is always lyrical. On Monday 29 January, Quartetto di Cremona will perform the world premiere of her string quartet Ogni cosa ad ogni cosa addio at Muziekgebouw aan' t IJ Amsterdam. The concert is part of the String Quartet Biennale, which takes place from 27 January... 

String theory inspires organ concert: Peter Eötvös conducts KCO in Multiverse

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... 

Ode to soul piercing sounds of György Kurtág

On 19 February 2016, György Kurtág celebrated his 90th birthday. Though frail, the Hungarian grandmaster of soul-crushing notes is still working on his first and only opera, Fin du Partie (Endgame), based on Samuel Beckett's play of the same name. The prologue was already premiered at a grand birthday festival at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he himself once studied. On Thursday 13 October, the... 

Composer Joey Roukens: 'In my new Violin Concerto, I explore my lyrical side'

Joey Roukens (Schiedam, 1982) studied composition at Rotterdam Conservatory and took private piano lessons with Ton Hartsuiker. Since graduating in 2006, he has been able to reach a large audience with his energetic, infectious music. Commissions are pouring in, from no small number of clients. He has already written two pieces for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra: Out of Control (2011) and Chase... 

Pierre Boulez turns 90 yet again

This year was a celebration of two composers from two seemingly completely different planets. The Estonian Arvo Pärt (b 1935) turned eighty, the Frenchman Pierre Boulez (b 1925) ninety. One is unparalleled among a wide audience for his eloquent 'tintinnabulist style', the other is applauded by a select group of insiders for his avant-garde compositions, which the general public, however, experiences as incomprehensible... 

Unsuk Chin: 'Holland is more open to new music than other countries'

In 1985, Unsuk Chin (Seoul 1961) won the Gaudeamus Music Prize with Spektra for three cellos, six years later she made her breakthrough with her Akrostichon-Wortspiel for soprano and ensemble composed for the Nieuw Ensemble. In 2004, she won the Grawemeyer Award, the world's most prestigious music prize; in 2007, she made a deep impression with her opera Alice in Wonderland. Tomorrow, Thursday 22 October. 

Requiem for the Red Box

After seven concert seasons, the broadcasting series 'The Friday of Vredenburg' says goodbye to emergency venue Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn, better known as 'The Red Box'. From September, the concerts will again take place in the Great Hall of the otherwise brand-new TivoliVredenburg, restored to its former glory. 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 gl...

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