Archive March 2005
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March 22, 2005
Two positive notes
Two happenings I unfortunately won't be able to attend (alas), but are good thinks to attend nevertheless (if you are invited or get yourself an invitation).
Thursday (March 24) the Amstel Saxophone Quartet will receive the Kersjes prijs (worth 50.000,- euros) in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Congratulations to them! Entrance only with invitation). I was invited, but I have a good reason to skip it (more about that later).
On Saturday (March 26) the Matangi String Quartet will present their new CD in the Bethaniënklooster. The concert is free, but you have to make a reservation. Again, I have a good reason for missing it.
Posted by Renske at 15:58 UTC | permanent link
March 19, 2005
The audience
There is one thing about De Volharding concert I attended last week and I didn't write about, but that should be a major concern. The audience was almost entirely innercircle new music professionals.
Where was the general public in a concert with 'easy listening' contemporary music?
Posted by Renske at 11:32 UTC | permanent link
March 16, 2005
Who is the critic's critic?
Last week I attended the concert City Life. It took De Volkskrant six days to publish a review.
The review was nice for Hans Koolmees, good for Terry Riley's In C, not so nice for Gerard Beljon, more positive for Jacob ter Veldhuis and good for Steve Reich's City Life.
Particularly the paragraph about Gerard Beljon is interesting, especially related to Kyle Gann's recent postings about the downtown/uptown issue.
The Volkskrant critic Frits van der Waa doesn't hear more than a harmony exercise. What he missed in his harmonic pre-occupation and failed to mention in his review was the highly original way of dealing with samples: way different from what Reich and Ter Verldhuis do.
If I wanted to attend this concert in another venue I might be put off by this review, although it wasn't too bad about the concert. It just tells me Frits van der Waa's preferences and pre-occupations differ from mine.
But it does leave me with a question: Who is the critic's critic?
Posted by Renske at 13:51 UTC | permanent link
March 10, 2005
Music communicates, does it?
Last night ensemble De Volharding concluded a concert in Felix Meritis with Steve Reich's City Life in an arrangement by Anthony Fiumara.
For some part of the audience I know the program must have been hard. Before they reached City Life they had to endure -according to Hague School conventions 'untermusik'- works like Cheese Cake by Jacob ter Veldhuis and Morgen by Gerard Beljon.
The aftermath at the bar was just as intriguing as the concert itself.
Who was talking to who and who was politely neglecting someone else.
Whoever said music was about music? Or more specific, are concerts about music? No, it is always the social event around it that counts. Music merely is a catalyst that keeps the process going, where it comes in handy to deeply understand it.
So I enjoyed an all entertaining evening with hotshots like Louis Andriesen en Jacob ter Veldhuis in one room.
Posted by Renske at 19:54 UTC | permanent link
March 08, 2005
Fragrance without a bite
The commercial radio station ClassicFM only airs the safe and solid repertoire. At least, that's what I discovered listening to them for a while.
They listen carefully to what the general public wants to hear. A lot of Smetana's Moldau, Mozart's Symphony Nr. 40 and Dvorak Slavic Dances.
I was nearly shocked hearing the finale of Stravinsky's Firebird. I discovered they even play 'contemporary' composers like Arvo Pärt and Tolga Kashif's Queen symphony (no harm meant, Tolga).
It is a pro they even play film music from composers like James Horner. But why not play music by composers like Steve Reich or John Adams? If we ever want to accept we have arrived in the 21st century it is about time to acknowledge contemporary music can taste nice without simply going back to the way of composing in the 1890s.
The Russian Duma should be pleased with stations like this. No Kulturkammer needs to be installed for this self indulged censorship. No investigations have to be undertaken because a theatre like the Bolshoi refuses to only stage harmless music that has lost its relevance in today's society.
So, come on ClassicFM, put some different music in your rotation list. Even the most expensive fragrance contains some smells you don't want to isolate, but are nevertheless there.
Posted by Renske at 22:22 UTC | permanent link
March 06, 2005
Changing winds in the Concertgebouw
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is one of the dinosaurs in Dutch music. They stick to Mahler, Brahms, Ravel and Stravinsky with conductors like Sir Collin Davis, Bernhard Haitink, Mariss Jansons in the lead.
They do program contemporary Dutch music, but the music ought to be of a certain reputation. Willem Jeths, Robin de Raaff, Geert van Keulen keep up to the standard for example. But now they're going to play Jacob ter Veldhuis. According to some composers and music buffs Ter Veldhuis' music is...out of bounds.
Well, I know of at least one orchestra member who isn't happy and might take a day off on June 3 this year. I wonder if he is the only one.
The other sign of changing winds is the invitation to Marin Alsop. Finally! I can remember when I was little, the general opinion was women wouldn't be able to conduct. Her dress would distract and musicians wouldn't know where to look, or something stupid like that.
Nearly 90 years after the suffragettes won their battle with the right for women to vote, finally one woman stepped up who is tall enough to face this orchestra. I hope this opens the door for many more women conductors in the future with this type of orchestras.
Posted by Renske at 21:43 UTC | permanent link
March 03, 2005
Winter in Holland
Winter in Holland 2005 (Photo RV)I am kind of embarrassed to see how we handle the little snow that has fallen the last 24 hours. I couldn't even make it to the office this morning only 25 kilometers away from my home: our national pride Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways) choked on its services. Even under normal conditions it is a challenge for them to maintain a normal schedule.
Last year we visited Sint Petersburg. Much more snow there, without public life halting in a panic with newspaper headings screaming SNOW SNOW SNOW.
MS Nordkapp near Bodø (Photo RV)Two years ago we traveled along the Norwegian coastline with Hurtigruten mid-winter when it was extremely cold with lots and lots of snow. Just as Russians the Normenneske didn't seem to have a problem to maintain the high standard of living (as high or better than Holland and much better than their Russian neighbours).
Holland needs more hard winters to be toughened again. So, stop the climate change!
Posted by Renske at 08:38 UTC | permanent link
March 01, 2005
Motionsickness at the opera...ehh...ballet
I am prone to motion sickness. During the first glider flight of the season I just know I will get sick. It fades away when my body adjusts again to the movements of the airplane. Since I know this I anticipate and it doesn't become a problem.
To my surprise I had a tad of motion sickness when we went to the ballet adaptation of Don Giovanni tonight. Cause was the delusional scenery: a front scrum with dancers performing behind it.
Since they used four of this screens on the deep Muziektheater stage to project buildings, walls, landscapes and different kind of 3D effects on it, it was sometimes hard to follow the onstage action. It was just too much visual information. Not good, for the story gets rather abstract when it's just limited to ballet. I don't want to question myself where to look.
A real miss is the final image. Don Giovanni is in hell, staged and lighted beautifully, but then this image is replaced by a sunset projection: devastating overkill. We know he's dead!
Rob Zuidam adapted the Mozart score, sometimes brilliantly and most of the time pretty good. Some moments I had associations with 1970s disco versions of Mozart's symphony no. 40, mainly since I felt the percussion sometimes as an intrusion to the original music. Especially the use of the hi-hat was annoying after a while, it sounded like a trick.
Volkskrant critic Frits van der Waa wrote after the premiere, he found the parts Zuidam composed to bridge the cuts in the Mozart score took the form of welds, and I agree with him. I wonder what I would have done, in this situation, but the difference is just too big. Perhaps Zuidam should have digested Mozart more into his own language overall to make it really work. (Mozarts music, btw, does work by itself: a real pitfall.)
To adapt a Mozart score in this way is pretty darn hard and I admire Rob Zuidam for doing it.
Posted by Renske at 23:17 UTC | permanent link