Concertzender Newsletter

Editorial

Surrounded by music: The Concertzender newsletter

No music without space. A saying like that may travel in many different directions. To physics for example, since sound needs matter to exist. Soundtracks such as Interstellar (Hans Zimmer) and Arrival (Johan Johansson) accompany great films. And those who have seen Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, will never listen to An der schönen Blauen Donau the same way again. But since a vacuum has no matter, it does not have sound either.

The small space of this newsletter is packed with attention to sound and its surroundings. Take Janacek, who foudn himself into more countries than he visited. Take Stijn Demeulenaere who invites us on a sound journey to ourselves. On the fifth of September at 7pm, make sure to take a seat for Sensenta by Harrold Roeland. What he will do is such a well-kept secret, that even he himself doesn’t know yet. What he does know, however, is that his live-made follow-up story moores sound, space and ambience. Coming soon, in your own, comfortable space. See you in four weeks!

Weekdays from Thursday 2 September 2021

Theme: Classical Music

Janacek: composer of the month

You can live in several countries without literally moving. Take Janacek. Our composer of the month was born in 1854 in the Habsburg Empire of Franz Joseph I. That central European patchwork made a new start in 1876 as a constitutional personal union that became better known as the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy and through the Sissi films. But the composer of the month of September came from Moravia-Silesia (or eastern Czechoslovakia, if you like), although he died in Czechoslovakia in 1928. Stick to Brno, and you are in the right place. That’s where the Janacek Museum is. In the heart of Europe.

In the mid-19th century, Vienna set the standard, both politically and artistically. The musical ideal could be summed up in three words: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. Janacek, too, followed that cursus honorum, until he came into contact with Czech composers like Dvořák and Smetana. And thus folk music crept into his oeuvre, contained in classical structures and related to Brahms and Mendelssohn. In time, Janacek increasingly broke away from that tradition, allowing more room for local motifs and subjects. His best-known works date from this period. There are more common threads in Janacek’s compositions, such as his love of Russian culture and vocal music, in which he himself was active as a choral conductor.

Theme: Modern Music

Genre: Experimental Music

What does a landscape sound like? On the road with Stijn Demeulenare

Wednesday September 8th between 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm, don’t go anywhere. We’ve done that already, for you. Dive into our deep soundscapes by Stijn Demeulenaere from Brussels. For more than a decade, he has been making sound installations. With these soundscapes – as they are called nowadays – he allows the listener to experience with their ears what an environment, a landscape actually sounds like.

Demeulenaere’s fascination for sound started during his sociology studies and at his job as a radio reporter. Pure sound, just listening to sound itself makes room for immersion and interpretation. Within that sound Demeulenaere creates artistic shapes to allow new experiences for the listener and to confront them with their own identity and history. He wants us to feel who we are and where we are by listening around us. How an ambience resonates in us and vice versa.

For his sound sculptures Demeulenaere uses many field recordings as they call it in the music world. They are not to be confused with nature recordings, because sound from both cities and houses play a big part in Demeulenaere’s works. It’s all about space as a source and as a place where sound is experienced. Ultimately, a soundscape itself becomes an ambient sound. Demeulenaere examines how sound gives space meaning and vice versa.

Share, mail, support and strengthen us

Since this month, the Concertzender has been stepping up a gear. Of course, you already knew where to find us as a subscriber. But our gems can shine a little more in between what else washes ashore with you. We want to increase our name recognition via social media. Perhaps you have already noticed the increased hustle and bustle on facebook, Twitter, or linkedin.

In the near future, we will develop a number of media campaigns to attract more listeners. And you can help us by sharing our messages. So do you have a friend? Give them a hint. Thank you from all of us!

Tuesday 7 September 2021

Theme: Classical Music

Wölfl

One moment you are celebrated and the next you are forgotten. This is what happened to Wölfl, who lived from Mozart’s Vienna Quartets, KV168-173 (1773) to the premiere of Beethoven’s 8th Symphony (1812). His musical career took place in between. But until recently, Wölfl’s posthumous career was less successful than that of his two colleagues.

This is now going to change. After our programme maker Thijs Bonger, in Genius Music Friends, explained how Haydn and Mozart were on each other’s nerves artistically, and while in a Stubborn Student the relationship between Haydn and Beethoven is still on the cutting table, it is now the turn of piano virtuoso Wölfl.

Will it be a revival or a rediscovery? On 7 September, a new episode of An Early Evening Stroll, with a special interactive bonus that we will not give away here. So listen up, on Tuesday 7 September between 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm.