Concertzender Newsletter

Editorial

A might handful

Februari 2020 might last a wee 24 hours longer, but the shortest month only deserves a short newsletter. So just a few articles, which fits in ideally with our composer of the month, who was a member of a composers group called the Mighty Handful.

Your daily dose of Beethoven will still be planned for workdays between 10 and 11. And if you have plans for an early holiday, read first about the trip by Mehran Karimi Nasseri. Jonathan Dove even made an opera about it, long before Steven Spielberg saw a film in it and the Academy recognized it as Oscar-worthy.

But homebodies don’t despair: every month on Friday we have El Mundo, with Ab de Haas. In one of the most exciting programmes on the Concertzender we race around the world in 60 minutes. This month we’re going to Colombia, France, Spain, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Italy, Cuba and Brabant (yes indeed!). Have a good trip and see you next month!

Friday 7th February 2020

Theme: World Music

Going Global with El Mundo

Every Friday night the Concertzender plays world music. Admitted: that’s what we do all the time. But on Friday we pay more attention to concerts and artists from places and genres outside your comfort zone.

We wil be covering this in more detail in the next newsletter, because there’s a lot to celebrate. Such as El Mundo, a round the world trip in 60 minutes, every month hosted by Ad de Haas. Is there a line or formula? Actually no, except the most important: music as the most universal forms of expression which connects, seduces and amazes.

Listen:
El Mundo, compiled by Ad de Haas. Listen on 7th February between 20:00 and 21:00.

Every weekday from 30th January 2020

Theme: Classical Music

Composer of the Month: Borodin

In February 2020 we’re focussing on a Russian. For aristocrat and advocate of women’s rights Alexander Borodin (1833-1987) composing was something he did alongside his normal work as a chemist. It explains his modest output, much of it chamber music, intended for performance privately.

But Borodin was anything but a hobbyist: he was inspired by the leading composers of the day, travelled all over Europe and became friends with Frans Liszt. He was one of Borodin’s first fans: Liszt brought his symphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asia into the repertoire .

Handful
Borodin is known as a member of The Mighty Handful, a group of five Russian composers who in the second half of the nineteenth century combined folk music with their own inventions to something which became known as ‘typical russian’. Additionally the interest in historic themes is more 19th century than Russian. Borodin chose a border conflict with Steppe tribes from the 12th century as his subject and wrote the opera Prins Igor. He didn’t finish it.

Theme: Classical Music

Beethoven alert

Knock-Knock-knock-KNOCK! …who’s there? It’s Ludwig, knocking at your door for your daily dose of musical genius. May we all become brethren!

Listen:
Long Live Beethoven. Throughout the year, from January 2020 every week Monday to Friday between 10:00 and 11:00.

Theme: Contemporary Music

Genres: Modern music | Opera

Opera in the 20th century: Flight

You know Spielberg? Pretty much everyone knows his film The Terminal (2004) with Tom Hanks. The story is about a man who gets stuck at an airport because he’s denied entry into the US. He can’t go back to his own country either because a revolution has broken out there during his flight.

But did you know that an opera had been made years earlier on this story? It’s the opera The Flight (1998) by the British composer Jonathan Dove. Film and opera are based on the true story of the Iranian Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who from 1988 lived for 18 years (!) in Terminal 1 of airport Charles de Gaulle in Paris. After his identity papers were stolen, Nasseri became trapped in the international zone behind the Customs. In 1999 his lawyer arranged a French residence permit, but Nasseri didn’t want to leave the terminal. That finally happened in 2006, when he had to go to hospital for an unknown illness.