Suave baritone Stéphane Degout was mood – and word – perfect in the brooding melancholy of Debussy. In perfect collusion with pianist Alain Planès, he was even better in droll fables by Poulenc and Ravel.
For the silver jubilee of Ronald Brautigam’s history with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Sally Beamish composed a new piano concerto. Haydn, Mozart, and Elgar complemented the programme.
A mélange of documentary, Chinese opera and contemporary music does not really bind into a solid whole, but Sichuan opera star Shen Tiemei’s performance is complete musical theatre.
Bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, in splendid voice and with great eloquence, traces the development of the Lied from Mozart to Schubert at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam.
Pianist Markus Hinterhäuser’s brilliantly curated Winterreise juxtaposes the devastating interpretative powers of baritone Matthias Goerne with captivating animated images by William Kentridge.
At the Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, Dutch baritone Henk Neven and pianist Hans Eijsackers charmed an enthusiastic audience with a programme of Ravel, Ibert, Schubert and Spanish songs arranged by Norwegian composer Arne Dørumsgaard.
As part of the Muziekgebouw’s 2014 Choral Series, renowned chamber choir The Sixteen gave a passionate, committed performance of music by Palestrina, Allegri, and modern composer James MacMillan.
On Good Friday, Cappella Amsterdam, conducted by Daniel Reuss, gave a beautifully refined rendition of Bach's St John Passion at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam, accompanied by the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and the riveting Evangelist of Anders Dahlin.
Asko|Schönberg, ensemble in residence at the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, opened the first edition of the Young Pianists Festival with a concert featuring two piano concertos, by György Ligeti and Klaas de Vries. The Dutch composer wrote his Second Piano Concerto for Daniël van der Hoeven, who won the Young Pianists Competition three years ago.
The stage in the versatile Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ was configured as an open stage, audience on three sides, and was minimally set with a small platform and a table with a red cloth and a candlestick. Myriad small electric candles were scattered about the floor, glowing a warm, flickering gold.
Many a dark tone roamed inside the Muziekgebouw as lovers of daring, opinionated orchestral music gathered there one day after the Mayan calendar ended. Diverse interpretations of apocalyptic fantasies and prophecies unfolded during this night. Apocalyptic, in its literal Greek meaning: revealing, disclosing.
Ives Ensemble are one of today’s important ambassadors of Feldman’s later works. In November 2011 they performed the 90-minute Piano, violin, viola, cello (1987) in Felix Meritis, Amsterdam. I wrote about that impressive performance and the history of Feldman’s music on Bachtrack.
The Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Amsterdam’s foremost modern classical music venue, opened the music season with a day dedicated to percussion. The first concert included Stravinsky’s Suite from L’histoire du soldat (1918) and Varèse’s Ionisation (1929-31) and Hyperprism (1922-23).
The Mahler Chamber Orchestra presented a Russian program with a twist; “A Russian Flirt with Haydn”. All four works and three composers that graced the stage were influenced by Haydn, most obviously Schnittke and his Moz-Art à la Haydn. The music worked well together, though I would suspect that this is more due to the Russian background than Haydn’s influence.
The concert was divided into two clear parts; the first included string quartet pieces by Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly and Sufjan Stevens, and the other half consisted of Planetarium, a multi-dimensional song-cycle for string quartet, trombones, piano, celesta, synthesizer, drums, drum machine, guitar and voice.
Amsterdam Sinfonietta offered a program with three Russians and a French composer, and, perhaps more interestingly, featured three works orchestrated by other composers.
Minimal music, the rhythm- and/or repetition-focused classical genre from the later 20th century, is well represented at Amsterdam's Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. This will surely come to a climax during the 2013 edition of the biannual World Minimal Music Festival, but as Marinissen of Lunapark stated before this warm-up edition: "We just couldn't wait".
For this concert Sigvards Kļava, chief conductor and artistic leader of the Latvian Radio Choir, worked as a guest conductor for the Dutch choir Capella Amsterdam. Modern and contemporary classical music play a significant, but not exclusive, role in the repertoires of both choirs.
It’s quite an achievement when a pianist can captivate an audience for a normal performance, let alone for one that lasts two and a half hours. For this reason pianists do not often tackle all of Shostakovich’s Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues in one evening, but this is precisely what Alexander Melnikov did at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam.
The Holland Festival boasts quite an impressive relationship with Britten and his works. Tonight’s chamber opera, The Rape of Lucretia was first performed at the festival in 1947 with Britten, Peter Pears and Kathleen Ferrier (for whom the opera was written) and the English Opera Group. Tonight’s performance with Oliver Knussen at the helm is another proud continuation of this tradition.
Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ is a venue known for its adventurous programs and patronage of contemporary music. Tonight’s concert was had the theme “Rust z8”, or “Rest in Peace” (literally “Rest softly”).
Die Dreiecksbeziehung mit tragischem Ausgang wurde von einem vollblütigen Sängerensemble und dem außergewöhnlich engagiert spielenden Mahler Chamber Orchestra getragen.
Hyena ist ein spannendes Konzerterlebnis im Rahmen des Holland Festivals und ein überzeugendes Plädoyer für ein weiteres Entdecken der Musik von Georg Friedrich Haas.
Katrien Baerts und die Musiker vom Asko|Schönberg zischten und swingten um die Wette, dass es vom ersten Moment an ein ansteckender musikalischer Genuss war.
Amsterdam hat ein neues Festival, dessen erste Edition György Ligeti gewidmet ist, und bei dem Pierre-Laurent Aimard im Mittelpunkt des Klavierkonzertes stand.
Das Konzert des Ensemble Modern beim Holland Festival war ein Augen- und Ohrenschmaus und gleichzeitig ein Paradebeispiel für wirklichen interkulturellen Austausch.
