Concertzender Newsletter

Editorial

Classics

Know your classics: it has been a classic expression itself for a long time already. So what does it tell us? More than enough! This edition of the Concertzender newsletter is bursting at the seams with classics: we have Liszt and lots, lots, lots of Beethoven.

In addition, we pay attention to Bartók and a London baker’s daughter, we’ll dip our toes into contemporary music and honour the Baroque delights of the bottle. We also repeat our programme about another classic, the Indian superstar and living legend Lata Mangeshkar (90!) Enjoy listening to Concertzender radio, live, Online, or on the road via The Concertzender App or enjoy visiting one of the concerts in The Hague or TivoliVredenburg.

Till next month!

Friday 6th March 2020

Theme: World Music

Genre: Middle Eastern

Exitos musicales

Do you cherish your classics? Then please take a moment to listen to the queen of Indian music, Lata Mangeshkar. When the 90-year old singer was rushed to the hospital in November 2019, it caused a media frenzy. Her family had to ask the press to not spread the rumour that she had died, which wasn’t the case.

In this month’s Exitos Musicales we want to underline Lata’s ‘immortality’, by playing Shraddanjali, her ‘Tribute to the Immortals’. She was ‘only 61-years old’ when she recorded this album and she still sounds like an angel. Most singers whose songs she covered on the album had long since died, but their popular songs, mostly movie soundtracks that also resonated with Western audiences, were already immensely popular in India and its surroundings.Take a moment to remember the classics and listen to Exitos Musicales!

Listen to
Exitos Musicales, compiled by Henk Braaksma. Listen on March 6 between 20 and 21 hrs.

Friday 13th and tuesday 17th March 2020

Theme: Early Music

Genre: Baroque

Cruel fortune and the delights of the bottle

Sharp contrasts, matured emotions and warm colours: Baroque is trending. On Friday afternoon 13 March, Concertzender Live will broadcast two baroque concert recordings: O Fortuna Crudele, featuring soprano Henriette Feith and baroque oboist Marcel Ponseele, and the concert The Delights of the Bottle, a performance of Eveline Juten and Arwen Bouw on the 2018 International Lute Event.

O Fortuna Crudele
Sunday afternoon 9 February 2020, the concert organisation Music on Chairs from Amersfoort presented O Fortuna Crudele; a diverse baroque concert with vocal and instrumental music by J.S. Bach, Händel, Telemann, Scarlatti, Thiel and Platti and performed by the world famous baroque oboist Marcel Ponseele, soprano Henriëtte Feith, baritone Robbert Muuse, harpsichordist Kathryn Cok and bassoonist Wouter Verschuren.

The star role in this concert is played by the baroque oboe, and to have one of world’s top baroque oboists, Marcel Ponseele, play it was a golden opportunity. His presence showed, for example, in the beautiful duet Mein Freund ist mein from cantata BWV 140 by Bach, the aria Ho tanti afanni in petto for soprano and oboe by Händel and the trio sonata in E flat by Telemann.

Theme: Classical Music

Composer of the month

When hearing the early works of our composer of the month, there’s a good chance that you suspect you’re listening to Brahms, Beethoven or Liszt, the other composers we will pay attention to this month. However, this changed when Béla Bartók (yes, it’s him!) developed a serious interest in traditional folk music around the age of 25 that would last a lifetime and mark his oeuvre.

The direct reason: a journey together with his friend Zoltán Kodály through the Hungarian inlands. Just in time, too, because the composer Bartók was searching at that time. So walking, most certainly in Hungary, must be good for you.

Ten years later, the Austrian-Hungarian dual monarchy and a thousand-year-old Habsburg dynasty had been blown away by a horrific world war. Bartók then blended folk music and expressionism into an explosive music mix, which led to works like The Miraculous Mandarin. Konrad Adenauer, then Cologne’s mayor, later also known as Germany’s Father of the Nation, blocked the performance of this work.

Located in calmer waters, Bartók was asked to compose an orchestral work, which resulted in a dance suite.

Theme: Classical Music

Beethoven and the 20th century

2020 is a real Beethoven year for the Concertzender. In our program The Last Century, we look at how Ludwig influenced 20th and 21st century composers. Over the course of six episodes we showcase works by Alfred Schnittke, Alberto Ginastera, Brett Dean and György Kurtág. Some of these composers literally cite Beethoven’s compositions, while others are only fascinated by elements from his later work. And then there are minimalistic composers who get their inspiration from Beethoven’s dynamic energy and powerful motives.

Commissions
In some episodes we present compositions that were commissioned by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, when they, led by Mariss Jansons between 2008 and 2012, recorded a Beethoven cycle. Composers of these ‘reflections’ on Beethoven include Jörg Widmann, Rodion Sjtsjedrin and Johannes Maria Staud.

Laughing with Louis
Luckily, there are also those who know how to capture the levity of Beethoven’s music. Take Johan de Mey’s Extreme Beethoven. Or Louis Andriessen’s (1970) nine-minute piece; The Nine Symphonies of Beethoven for Promenade Orchestra and Ice Cream Bell.

Theme: Contemporary Music | Crosslinks

Branding Festival: a dive into contemporary music

Do you want to dip your toes into contemporary music? Come to the Festival Dag in de Branding on 7th and 8th March! The The Hague Festival presents the newest music in a number of different locations. The Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir is the featured composer in two concerts by the New European Ensemble.

But there is more: On Saturday, the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble will open the day with the family friendly show The Unknown Chaplin, with music by Micha Hamel, Reza Namavar and Oene van Geel. Composer and artist-in-residence Meriç Artaç will present the new work Zizos which was written for the festival and that will be performed by musicians from the Catchpenny Ensemble.

Over the last decade, Festival Dag in de Branding has risen to become one of the leading platforms for new music. It organises four programs a year at locations all across The Hague. The festival showcases the latest developments in classical and improvised music, in music theatre, jazz, pop, opera and electronic music.

Theme: Classical Music

Nancy, muse for Mozart and Haydn

by Thijs Bonger

Mozart and Haydn found each other on many levels. One of which was their boundless admiration for a young opera diva. Her voice, acting talent and physical attraction made her a muse for many composers. Many pieces were created with her in mind. And they often turn out to be more than worth listening to.

From London to Florence
Her name? Nancy Storace. She was born in London in 1765, to an English baker’s daughter and an Italian father, namely double bass player Stefano Storace. Nancy was a child prodigy. She made her debut at seven and was already performing as an opera singer at eleven years old. She moved to Italy with her equally talented brother, where she achieved much success. In Florence she was in an artistic duel with a castrato. Castrati often have more volume than female sopranos, but Nancy was determined to prove her voice was as good as his. This period is probably when the seeds of later vocal troubles were planted.

Mad about the girl
Audiences went mad for her performances. Nowadays, it’s common for opera singers to also shine as actors, but in Mozart’s and Haydn’s time it was a rarity. In 1783, Nancy made such an impression on an Austrian government official that he invited her to join a new opera company in Vienna.

Theme: Classical Music

The Liszt Competition, 12th edition

Fourteen pianists from ten countries will participate in the 12th Liszt Competition in TivoliVredenbrug in Utrecht from 17 to 28 March. And what’s more, It promises to become a special edition. For the first time, the participants won’t solely play compositions by Liszt, but also works of one of his idols: Beethoven.

Beethoven-Liszt
Liszt was a huge fan of Beethoven and made piano arrangements of all his symphonies. Nothing out of the ordinary in those days – after all, a grand piano was more affordable and available than a symphony orchestra, and Liszt wasn’t the only one. However, when a lion like Liszt crosses swords with a giant like Beethoven, you can tell something special is about to happen. Liszt’s arrangements are extremely virtuoso and seldom performed, and yet these ‘unplayable’ symphony transcriptions are part of the programme the fourteen participants will play at the 2020 Liszt Competition.

Three rounds, no drop outs
Before the jury selects the three finalists, all fourteen participants must perform in three different rounds in the Hertz hall in TivoliVredenburg. Each round has its own theme: piano transcriptions, chamber music featuring violinist Barnabás Kelemen and cellist Maja Bogdanovic and original compositions by Liszt and Beethoven.

Musical historiography: Emanuel Overbeeke about Beethoven and the Netherlands

Emanuel Overbeeke, one of our programme makers, wrote an extraordinary book on Beethoven. It’s not the umpteenth book about Beethoven, his life, suffering and work; it’s the first one about Beethoven’s position in the Dutch culture from his era up to today.

Different groups and persons in different times claimed the composer for various reasons. That’s why the reception of Beethoven was and still is a reflection of our society today. The book covers many people and topics from both inside and outside the music scene such as authors, politicians, class, good and less good Germans, the Dutch political system of pillarisation and depillarisation.

In short, the book is as much about the Dutch as it’s about Beethoven. A very special and beautiful book for music lovers as well as historians. For more information visit Voor de kunst.

Before 20th March

Theme: Classical Music

Prize draw

In January, we asked you what music – you may fill in the name of the composer yourself – was used in the film Zardoz. The answer: part 2 (allegretto) from Symphony no. 7 by, indeed, Ludwig van Beethoven.

The winner is R.M. Stolk from Voorhout. Congratulations!

March prize draw
In this month’s quiz our composer of the year again plays a role: which music by Ludwig van Beethoven was used in the science fiction film Soylent Green from 1973?
Please send your answer to prijsvraag@concertzender.nl before 20 March 2020 and you have a chance of winning one of the two (!) following books: In de muziek by Wieke Karstens or Het Strijkkwartet by Leo Sanama.

Do you also know – not part of the question, by the way – what Soylent Green is made of? For anyone who wants some food for thought, the equally disconcerting and socially relevant film (set in 2022) can be found on YouTube.