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April 22, 2006

Perseverance

Muziekgebouw (Photo RV)Last night the ensembles Volharding and Doelenensemble teamed up for a concert in Het Muziekgebouw. The concert had a couple of surprises (at least for me).

To begin with Wim Lamans piece Vortex: it was much more interesting and entertaining than I expected. But the first piece after the break by Peter Andriaansz, Structures II, took me off guard. His stretch music really annoyed me while listening to it. Kind of the same reaction I had when I heard Phil Niblock's music in Ostrava.

But at some point, just before they played the final notes, I started to realize I liked the piece. And when they were done I was pretty amazed: I could have taken in some more. With ca. 20 minutes Structues II is actually too short!

Most people came however (I think) for Luca Francesconi's Body Electric. Francesconi composed his music with the Abu Grhaib prison abuses in mind. And although I am sure Francesconi is sincere in his intentions, his music uses too much brainpower. For me he overshoots his intentions, even with Irvine Arditti brushing his strings as he was doing.

While listening I lost the Abu Grhaib association within the first notes without being able to retrieve his real intentions.

For that matter, Arditti did have a better opportunity with Mary Finsterer's violin concerto Constans (composed in 1995), although the violin part did blend with the ensemble extremely well. So well, it submerged in the ensemble, despite the amplification.

Posted by Renske at 11:25 UTC | permanent link