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Recent Posts
- Composer Karin Rehnqvist: ‘I simply had to address global warning in Silent Earth’ April 3, 2020
- ‘Opa Nijlpaard’ is niet meer: modernemuziekliefhebber Frans Curvers sterft, 91 jaar oud March 30, 2020
- Krysztof Penderecki dies at 86 – indefatigably he testified to the issues of our times March 29, 2020
- Lera Auerbach: Lost Paradise Regained February 24, 2020
- Robert Adlington on Reinbert de Leeuw: ‘His “canon” was quite unlike anyone else’s’ February 22, 2020
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Author Archives: theaderks
Composer Karin Rehnqvist: ‘I simply had to address global warning in Silent Earth’
Saturday 18 April was to see the first performance of Karin Rehnqvist’s Silent Earth in NTR ZaterdagMatinee. Yet, as all concerts, this premiere fell prey to the measures taken to prevent the further spreading of the Corona-virus. Rehnqvist had written … Continue reading
‘Opa Nijlpaard’ is niet meer: modernemuziekliefhebber Frans Curvers sterft, 91 jaar oud
‘Thea, heb je dat nieuwe stuk van … al gehoord? Het is prachtig!’ En daar plopte weer een wetransfer binnen met een opname van Kate Moore, Pete Harden, Calliope Tsoupaki of willekeurig welke andere componist. Frans Curvers zat bij elke … Continue reading
Posted in music, news, personal
Tagged Floor Vogelaar, Frans Curvers, Proms in Paradiso
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Krysztof Penderecki dies at 86 – indefatigably he testified to the issues of our times
After a long and serious illness the Polish composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki died on Sunday 29 March 2020 in his home in Kraków. He was one of the most important composers of Poland, who was internationally renowned. In 1961 … Continue reading
Posted in music, news
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Lera Auerbach: Lost Paradise Regained
The Russian Lera Auerbach (1973) does not shy away from major challenges. And that is an understatement. Recently she made a big impression with her cycle Goetia 72: in umbra lucis, a setting of the names of 72 demons for … Continue reading
Robert Adlington on Reinbert de Leeuw: ‘His “canon” was quite unlike anyone else’s’
Reinbert de Leeuw died on 14 February 2020, and was buried in Amsterdam exactly a week later, after a worthy tribute in Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. He had chosen the music for his farewell himself, with Asko|Schönberg performing Berceuse élégiaque … Continue reading
Reinbert is dead, long live Reinbert!
‘I get up with you and go to bed with you’, I said jokingly. We were standing in his kitchen, where he was making coffee for himself and a cup of tea for me. Reinbert’s big frightened eyes told me … Continue reading
Posted in music, news, personal
Tagged Reinbert de Leeuw, Reinbert de Leeuw: mens of melodie
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Why I hope to meet the twenty-something members of a reading club at the Dutch premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s soundtrack to ‘Die Stadt ohne Juden’
‘If it happens once, it can happen again.’ These admonishing words from the Italian-Jewish concentration camp survivor Primo Levi are more topical than ever. Neo-Nazis in Germany shout Hitler’s slogans with impunity, in the Netherlands the largest political party (Forum … Continue reading
Tuneful melodies and subdued tragedy in Fête Galante Ethel Smyth
‘If I hadn’t had three things that have nothing to do with music, I would have gone to waste from loneliness and disillusionment at an early age’, wrote Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) when she was sixty. Those three things were: ‘A … Continue reading
Posted in music, women composers
Tagged Ensemble Lontano, Ethel Smyth, Fete Galante, Odeline de la Martinez, Retrospect Opera
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An Orfeo that would make Wagner’s mouth water
The new production of L’Orfeo by De Nederlandse Reisopera and Opera2Day is a Gesamtkunstwerk that would have made Wagner’s mouth water. Director Monique Wagemakers forges song, dance, music, costumes and décor together into one flowing, inseparable whole. The performance is … Continue reading
Posted in music, review
Tagged Claudio Monteverdi, Hernán Schvartzman, L'Orfeo, La Sfera Armoniosa, Monique Wagemakers, Nanine Linning, Opera2Day
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