Concertzender Newsletter

Editorial

Quiet City

Oh, if only you worked at Concertzender, you could go out after curfew these days. As long as you have an evening job, of course, and the right paperwork in reach for law enforcement. The reward: a quiet city. The Oudegracht canal has never meandered along the Dom Tower more beautifully than it does now, and the Mariaplaats has never been lovelier.

If music is to accompany this tranquil shadow theatre, then perhaps it should be Quiet City by Aaron Copland, which he wrote for the stage in 1939 and which we recorded in the Leeuwenberghkerk in Utrecht, with special thanks to our recording engineer Wijnand de Groot.

So much for silence. After all, music is what it’s all about. Starting this month, we have a new schedule. You can find the broadcast timetable in this newsletter, so you can figure it out for yourself, right? Halfway through the month, we’ll start our brand new documentary series on Josquin des Prez, who died 500 years ago.

More recent is our exceptional composer of the month, who hides under a fountain in the very heart of Paris. We have a lot of jazz from The Hague and beyond, and you can go for a walk – remember to bring the right paperwork, though – with Thijs Bonger and Joseph Wölfl, the man who took on Beethoven in a piano duel… and, perhaps, won?

See you next month!

From Monday 1st February 2021

Changez, please!

The Concertzender is getting better and better. Think about it: eighteen months ago, we started with horizontal programming. The starting points were: more recordings made by us and mornings with accessible music. Our programme Morning Edition has grown into one of the flagships of the station. We are delighted about that, and so are you. That’s why we’ll continue on this exciting path. How are we going to do that?

From February 1 every night from 7 to 11 pm gets its own signature. Do you love drone music, but is Classical Music just a little too… well … classical? Or is it the other way around? From February 1 you’ll know exactly what to expect. Here is the list:

Monday:	Live-recordings
Tuesday:	Classical music
Wednesday:	Contemporary music
Thursday:	Early music
Friday:	World music
Saturday:	Jazz
Sunday:	Crosslinks

Every night you can listen to music you like the most, not infected by other genres. And for every other night, you can browse through thousands of programmes in every genre imaginable on our site or app. But that’s not all, starting next month, you can listen to jazz or world music every day from 5 to 7 pm. We have listed everything for you in the attached schedule.

Download the broadcast scheme 2021 (PDF file).

On demand

Theme: Classical Music

A Walk with Wölfl

by Thijs Bonger

I didn’t need to look long while searching for new music; I found it during a piano recital. The young pianist Mattias Spee passionately plead for a composer that I’d never heard of before. It was about Joseph Wölfl who lived from 1773 until 1812. Mattias’ story was good, but he convinced me even more when he played the mighty music of this contemporary of Beethoven. After the event, I decided to dedicate an episode to this certain Wölfl.

Mozart’s family friend
Wölfl grew up in Salzburg. From the age of five, Mozart’s father Leopold – and later on Haydn’s brother Michael – taught him to play violin and piano. Mozart’s sister Nannerl taught him the fine points of piano playing. It didn’t take long for the young Joseph to become a family friend of the Mozarts. From all what you read about Wölfl, one particular thing catches the eye. Around 1800 he was a lot more famous than Beethoven, in Vienna and internationally. He was also seen as Beethoven’s only serious rival who was very successful as a pianist and improviser in the salons of the old nobility at that moment.

Duelling pianos
In Vienna, the phenomenon piano duelling had been around for decades. In the presence of the Emperor, Mozart and Clementi had fought one out twenty years prior. In 1799, Baron Wetzlar decided to organize such a piano duel at his house. The large country house where he lived, still exists and is situated near Palace Schönbrunn. This Baron Wetzlar, was among a group of important people who quite recently were given nobility titles, often because they had managed to become very rich. It was this group who supported Wölfl because Beethoven was supported by the old, established nobles.

Theme: Contemporary Music

Composer of the month: Saariaho

Our French composer of the month is actually from Finland because even though Kaija Saariaho (1952) was born near Helsinki, she has lived and worked in Paris since 1982. She was associated with the famous IRCAM, the electro-acoustic research institution closely related to the Centre Pompidou. ‘Closely’ should be taken literally, because the institution is mainly hidden underneath the large fountain on the forecourt.

The combination of electronics and acoustic instrumentation which the IRCAM pursued, fit with Saariaho’s style. She broke through with slowly changing sound palettes. An example is Jardin Secret from 1985, which we’d love to show you.

Later, Saariaho’s music developed into more vast shapes and meandering melodies without a centre. A comparison with Finland seems obvious, but the composer has never spoken out about it. However, there is a connection with Japanese culture, both in her large orchestral pieces like Six Japanese Gardens as in her pieces for chamber music ensembles. You may be able to characterise it as ‘spherical’. This month, you can hear this characterisation in Saariaho’s work, Neiges (1998) for twelve cellists, for example.

Theme: Jazz

House of Hard Bop

In February and March, Bop drummer and programme maker Eric Ineke focusses on the duo Hank Mobley (tenor) and Freedie Hubbard (trumpet). Both wind players from Blue Note Records made a series of recordings. Most of those in the studio of the famous sound engineer Rudy van Gelder.

On some albums, they are both leading. Goin’Up (1960) and Blue Spirits (1966) are on Hubbard’s name, while Mobley is leading The Turnaround, and Roll Call (1961). Concerning the drummers – with a nod to the programme maker – , they are among the best who keep time & drive going: Art Blakey, Philly Joe Jones, Pete LaRoca, and Elvin Jones.

Bop enthusiasts; tune in!

Listen:
Saturday 20 February 2021, 17:00, House of Hard Bop (Eric Ineke)

Thursday 18th February 2021

Theme: Early Music

Renaissance epitome: Josquin Desprez

Starting on Thursday 18 February, we at Documento will broadcast a series on Josquin Desprez. This year, 2021, marks the 500th anniversary of this composer’s death. He was, perhaps, the most important composer of the entire Renaissance.

Josquin Desprez (approx. 1450 – 1521) was one of the most celebrated composers of his time. He worked at the French royal court and the papal household, among others. German theologian Martin Luther expressed his admiration for Josquin’s music by calling him: “the master of the notes. They must do as he wills; as for the other composers, they have to do as the notes will.”

Documento will be devoting a series of 7 episodes to Desprez. After an introductory programme, we’ll cover his motets, his masses and his chansons. This series will be broadcast from February to August, on the third Thursday of every month at 9 pm.

Listen:
Thursday 18 February 2021, from 21:00 to 22:00 part 1 will be broadcast.

On demand

Theme: Jazz

Jazz from The Hague

In January, jazz podium De Nieuwe Kamer in The Hague launched a series of podcasts on jazz musicians from The Hague. Every episode, we put a new musician in the spotlight. There’s plenty of time for both an extensive interview and a live performance (with band). The guest performer will bring music that has contributed to their musical development.

Jazz veteran Ben van den Dungen is the interviewer. “It’s crucial for musicians from The Hague to have a podium in their own city so that they can develop themselves and make themselves heard. We want to provide that, at least virtually, for as long as the pandemic persists.”

Meanwhile, eleven podcasts are live, with Ellister van der Molen, Eed van Been, Juraj Stanik and Simon Rigter, among others. “Eric Ineke had so much to say, he needed two episodes!” beamed Ben van der Dungen. These interviews intend to let the listeners truly get to know the performers, with musical reflections, exciting tales, and juicy anecdotes.

You can find the podcasts (in Dutch) on the site of jazz podium De Nieuwe Kamer, or you can listen to them on the usual suspects, such as Apple Music, Spotify, TuneIn and YouTube.