Concertzender Newsletter

Editorial

Let’s wander and wonder: the concertzender in June

This June, the concertzender wanders from Tennessee, to Paris, Vienna and Vught. We like you to join Guy Livingston on his travels through the magnificent American Landscape. May the spleen be with you, taking you to many unheared of places.

Dutch composer Ton de Leeuw deserves your listening ear, too, as well as the unique Carnaval of threatened animals, which will be touring the Netherland this summer.

Always wanted to know what master painter Duke Ellintgton did before he became, well… the Duke? We’ll be broadcasting some of Duke’s earliest recordings, with his band, the Washingtonians, this month.

Have a good one, and don’t forget to fieverishly endorse us on any platform you are actively involved in!

Weekdays from Thursday 3 June 2021

Theme: Classical Music | Contemporary Music

Composer of the month: Schönberg

Arnold Schönberg lived during the last quarter of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th. He was a revolutionary, but more out of necessity than out of radical tendencies or free will. Schönberg only gradually freed himself from his late-romantic roots (Brahms, Wagner), which can still be heard in works like the oratorio Gurrelieder. His music became more atonal without altogether abandoning tonality or late-romantic phrasing. He was an innovator, firmly rooted in tradition.

After the Drei Klavierstücke opus 11 from 1911, a decisive period began. Schönberg distanced himself from traditional forms without a clear-cut alternative. Intuition and surprise were given a central role in music intended for small ensembles and performed in the same format. Only a decade later, the twelve-tone technique emerged: series of twelve notes without any musical hierarchy. All notes count equally.

Schönberg was German through and through, but his Jewish origins meant that from the 1920s onward, he witnessed the brutal ways Germany was heading towards. In the year Hitler came to power, Schönberg left Germany for the US. His harmony became more tonal until the end of his life. In June 2021, Composer of the Month author Emmanuel Overbeeke will take you along the works and life of Arnold Schönberg. You will hear, among other things, his early string quartet, which he showed to Johannes Brahms with great anticipation. How did that go? To find out, listen on weekdays between 4 and 5pm, starting Thursday 3 June.

Tuesday 22 June 2021

Theme: Contemporary Music

Cronicle of Dutch music: Ton de Leeuw

In June, Chronicle of Dutch Music will be focusing on Ton de Leeuw, who died a quarter of a century ago. Today, De Leeuw is best known as the author of the 1964 standard work Muziek van de twintigste eeuw (music of the twentieth century). He wrote the book while teaching composition and musical history at the Amsterdam conservatory.

As a composer, De Leeuw became fascinated with non-Western music and what connected it and made it different from the Western classical traditions. Pieces like Mouvements retrogrades for orchestra (1958) and Linkerhand en rechterhand (1976) bear witness to that. For the last eight years of his life, De Leeuw lived in Paris, France. The piece he wrote as a farewell to Amsterdam and the Netherlands can also be heard in the Chronicle. The title will probably sound familiar: Les Adieux.

Listen:
Chronicle of Dutch Music, Tuesday evenings at 1900.

Saturday 5 June 2021

Theme: Jazz

The young Duke

In June 2021, Concertzender will bring you early versions of legendary pieces by Edward Kennedy Ellington, aka Duke. The greatest bandleader of the last century taught himself to play the piano by copying other people’s art.

In 1924 he started making his first records with a group called the Washingtonians, named for Duke’s birthplace. Three years later, Concertzender will focus on the intervening years in which Ellington recorded for small labels. Soloist Ellington, who started out as a painter of advertising signs, will also be featured.

Listen:
Classic Jazz, Saturday 5 June, 4pm.

Summer of 2022

Wanted: Singers

A couple of newsletters (and a pandemic) ago, we already put it in the spotlights: a new project by Zimihc, in which music and visual art come together. The world-famous Mexican artist Carlos Amorales works with a project choir on a new work of art for a year. All singers from Utrecht are allowed to join the project under the guidance of conductor Rohan Poldervaart.

Carlos Amorales Experience is not necessary; singers are encouraged to embark on an adventure through improvisation and other techniques.

Commissioned work for 900 years of Utrecht
Carlos Amorales was commissioned to develop this new work of art by the City of Utrecht. The Mexican artist worked and lived in the Netherlands for several years and exhibited in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, among other places. But his work is broader than just visual art. Morales uses music, language, sports and many other elements. In texts and music, political ideas are critically examined.

New Choral Singing
Alongside the conductor and the artist, the project choir is developing a new method for choral singing. This method will be made available to all Utrecht choirs later in the project. The final performance of the project will be in the summer of 2022. No fewer than 1000 voices will then join together to fill the Jaarbeursplein with music. Would you like to join, just tap!

Sunday 6 June 2021

Theme: Crosslinks

American travels

All roads lead to the concertzender. Take Guy Livingston, who left Tennessee for Paris a long time ago, found love, ended up in The Hague and met the Concertzender. That journey led to a unique series of some 120 programmes, born of… homesickness. Guy missed the Great Smoky Mountains and decided to make a programme in which he travelled through the United States, from landscape to landscape.

A puzzle with many pieces because there was plenty of music. In addition to classical music, there were also soundtracks that helped shape our image of the overwhelming American nature. Just think about the films of John Wayne or Bonanza.

The Internet has contributed to the dissolution of time and space for the last 40 years or so because the music on either side of the pond no longer varies as much as before. Yet, a lot of the music in American travels dates back to the last century, when there was still such a thing as ‘the American sound’, whether or not it was inspired by a world of canyons, vast plains and rivers.

Guy: “My favourite episode is probably number 82: Take me to the River, which is about the Mississippi, one of the longest rivers in the world. The river has also been a source of inspiration for writers, poets and every kind of composer you can think of. Many of them have been left orphaned by history. Take Florence Price, an African-American composer, at a time when people only paid any attention to white male composers.”

Endangered animals on tour

This summer, four aspiring young musicians will tour around the Netherlands (yes, we can!), presenting a contemporary musical take on a series of endangered animals. With Camille Saint-Saëns lurking somewhere in the background, Sophie de Rijk and Hilke Bressers talk about their initiative.

Bedreigde dieren Sophie: “I am a violinist, composer, and arranger; being first fiddle and artistic leader of Padavita Tango String Quart, I come up with and develop our own theatre concert programmes. I am also working as a freelance musician on several different projects.”

Hilke: “I have a lot of experience setting up innovative musical projects in which there almost always is a link between artistic and societal expression. I am also a singer, and I have been composing my own musical pieces for a few years. Carnaval der Bedreigde Dieren (Carnival of Endangered Species) will be my debut as a composer.”

Sophie: “Hilke and I met at the Practical Idealism project of Merlijn Twaalfhoven’s The Turn Club. Artists from various genres were instructed to turn big, idealistic dreams into a practical plan. The loss of biodiversity turned out to be a big concern for both of us, and before long, Carnaval der Bedreigde Dieren was born.”