Concertzender Newsletter

Editorial

Look for the sun…and Sensenta

The sun shines through in this summer newsletter.You can read about the Sun Quartet opus 20 by Joseph Haydn. And about music at the court of Louis 14th, the Sun King.

Then we’d like to draw your attention to programme maker Harrold Roeland, the spiritual father of one of our most unique programmes: Sensenta. Started almost 200 episodes ago and still the musical story rolls on in its fixed spot on Sunday evenings.

The next newsletter will appear at the end of August, until then have a lovely summer wherever you are !

Every work day from Thursday July 2nd 2020

Theme: Classical Music

Composer of the month: Alphons Diepenbrock

Composer of the month for July 2020 is Dutchman Alphons Diepenbrock (1862-1921). He lived exactly three centuries after Sweelinck and for many of his generation he was the first Dutch composer since Sweelinck with an international reputation.

In his works a number of traditions come together in a complex manner. As a good Catholic he knew his Gregorian very well. His second love was German culture, and not the Prussian military tradition of Wilhelm II, but the early romanticisim of poets such as Eichendorff and Hoffmann.

Above all Diepenbrock was one of the first in this country to accept Debussy’s language. Diepenbrock called himself a vocally oriented composer, introduced the symphonic poem genre and his music has inspired Dutch musicians for more than a century.

Listen:
Every work day from Thursday July 2nd, from 16:00 to 17:00 CET.

First Tuesday of every month

Theme: Classical Music

Haydn’s revolutionary Sun Quartets

By Thijs Bonger

What does the sun have to do with Haydn’s string quartets? More than you might think. Because Haydn wrote so much music and it’s not so easy to remember all the opus numbers, all the nicknames are very handy. The six quartets opus 20 from 1772 were rapidly christened the Sun Quartets, because publisher Hummel from Amsterdam portrayed a rising sun on the title page.

He probaly never realised how apposite the rising sun was, because it was just these quartets which started off a new age for this genre. We think of opus 20 as among his early works but he was already 40 and had already written about 50 symphonies. His development in the two genres didn’t run in parallel. In Haydn’s hands the string quartet comes to full maturity with opus 20. It now always has four movements and each instrument gets the same attention. For centuries Haydn’s model has been an inspiration for later generations of composers.

Intelligent conversation
What did Haydn’t contemporaries think of these revolutionary quartets? Mixed views. The new equality between the four instruments led Goethe to call the string quartet “a stimulating conversation between four intelligent people”.

Theme: Classical Music

Genre: Baroque

Here comes the Sun King

In Early Delights on 19th July (at 15:00 ) we’re playing music by French baroque composers who often wrote in the keys of G major or minor. According to harpsichordist Rebecca Maurer they did this in honour of the Sun King Louis 14th, because G means ‘Sun’.

Whether it’s true or not, it’s certain that the keys G and G minor were used a lot, because they had a sort of ‘Royal’ character and lots of instruments sounded at their best in these keys.

We’re playing harpischord music by among others Louis Couperin, Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer and Jean Henry d’Anglebert. The last-named served the Sun King for 29 years.

Listen:
Early Delights. Sunday 19th July 2020, 15:00-16:00 CET.

Sunday July 26th 2020

Theme: Classical Music

Genre: Baroque

Here comes the Sun King (2)

Music for the Sun King’s court can also be heard in the Series Jordi Savall, on Sunday 26th July at 16:00.

Savall made many cd’s devoted to this majestic baroque musi, such as L’Orchestre du Roi Soleil, Le Concert Spirituel and Les Grandes Eaux Musicales. Savall conducts his baroque orchestra Le Concert des Nations.

Listen:
Series Jordi Savall: Sunday 26th July 2020, 16:00-17:00 CET.

Sunday July 5th 2020

Theme: Crosslinks

Sensenta times 200

Sunday, July 5th marks the 200th episode of our never ending programme Sensenta. Each episode starts where the previous one halted, yielding a continous programma that has been running for more than two years now. Have a listen, just tune in on Sunday night from 18:00 hrs.

To mark the jubilee, program maker Harrold Roeland compiled his list of favorite episodes. And all of them can be listened to via our website!

Sensenta 1. Edition 49: Delia Derbyshire
2. Edition 127: In Memoriam
3. Edition 193: Florian
4. Edition 100: XL
5. Edition 135: Fallen Woods
6. Edition 30: Een mis voor kerst
7. Edition 82: Sterren kijken 4: You are here
8. Edition 86: Francois en het C akkoord
9. Edition 131: Magnetar
10. Edition 187: Recharting The Senses

Prize draw

In April we asked you which composers had influenced the American composeror William Susman. There were many but the ones we were looking for were Xenakis & Ligeti.