Concertzender Newsletter

Editorial

The Concertzender in February: music everywhere and allways

Music is everywhere ! Today you can listen the whole time to anything you want. Lots of music just comes to you via the radio. The first radio broadcast in 1919 contained every musical genre.

Over a hundred years later the Concertzender still has its mission: under the motto "recognise and explore" the Concertzender broadcasts daily a broad musical palette.

This month let yourself be surprised by the music our programme makers have decided must absolutely be heard !

Wednesday 8th February

Theme: Contemporary Music

“Making radio is even more fun than I thought”

Since last month, former Parool journalist Erik Voermans has been the new program maker for contemporary music. Every third Tuesday of the month he makes the program Bijdetijds with an hour of contemporary music.

In addition, once every two months he selects two hours of music based on a theme. He built his first Theme broadcast on Wednesday 8th February around the figure of Pierre Boulez.

Voermans was the Classical Music editor of Het Parool for decades until 2022. Although Voermans has often been heard on the radio, making his own programmes is new to him. “Making radio is a long-cherished, but never fulfilled wish of mine,” says Voermans. “So I am very pleased that I can now put together two programmes for the Concertzender. After two programs I already know one thing for sure: making radio is even more fun than I thought.”

Listen: Theme, Wednesday February 8th at 8 pm.

Theme: Early Music

The admiration of Charles Avison

On Saturday 4th February, Wandering through the Baroque is dedicated to the English composer Charles Avison. The fact that he made many arrangements of the music of his Italian colleagues shows that he had more admiration for them than for his immediate colleague Händel.

In the programme we hear some of both collections, performed by The Avison Ensemble and by Café Zimmermann. In addition, some original chamber music works will be played by the London Baroque ensemble.

The most curious work in the program is undoubtedly a psalm setting by another Italian composer: Benedetto Marcello. He had set to music a number of paraphrases of the psalms in Italian, which caused a sensation throughout Europe, well into the 19th century. Avison provided some of them with an English text and we also hear one of them.

Listen: Wandering through the Baroque, Saturday February 4th at 11 am.

Theme: World Music

World music from far and wide

During the night of Friday 3rd to Saturday 4th February you will hear a number of new albums from very diverse backgrounds in the programme The Night: World. There is then enough time to hear them in their entirety.

Merema For example, you can listen to how the Mordwien band Merema has adapted their traditional folk music to influences from electronic music. In this way they keep the traditions and language of Mordovia alive. You will also hear the music of Silent Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango: a special project where women who experienced the violence during the Holocaust have been able to process their traumas.

The Night: World Music
Every Friday night, the weekend at the Concertzender often starts with brand new, newly released albums; which can then be listened to in their entirety. Our experienced programme makers Cobie Ivens and Benno Wormgoor alternately show their selection.

Listen: The Night: World Music, Saturday February 4th at 1 am.

Tuesday 14th February

Theme: Classical

Classic and avant-garde by Matty Niël

The 13th February broadcast of Chronicle of Dutch Music is dedicated to Matty Niël, born in Maastricht in 1918. As far as we know, Niël is the only Dutch composer who studied after 1920 with one of the three members of the Second Viennese School: during the Second World War he studied in Vienna with Anton Webern.

After the war, Webern became one of the heroes of the then young avant-gardists because of his innovations. For Niël, on the other hand, Webern was someone who, despite these innovations, remained faithful to the classical language. This double attitude also characterizes Niël's music. He was active in many genres and lived and worked most of his life in Limburg, which unfortunately did not help his reputation above the rivers. His strongest pieces therefore deserve greater fame outside Limburg.

Listen: Chronicle of Dutch Music, Tuesday February 14th at 9 pm.

In the photo: Matty adapted a composition by Joseph Haydn in the 1950s for three of his pupils from the same family: Jan, Jos and Leo Servaes. The photo shows us the three little pianists behind the keyboard under the watchful eye of a youthful Matty Niël, as they perform Matty's composition. The photo was taken in 1959 during the annual performance by students of the Sittard music school in the theater of Sittard.

Join our Promotion Team

Do you enjoy telling others about the Concertzender? The Concertzender records many special concerts. We need you to let visitors to those concerts know that they can listen back on the Concertzender!

Concertzender Banner in het Concertgebouw You address the visitors and act as the visting card for the potential listeners. We're forming a team of ambassadors for the Concertzender. As a member of this team you can write in for the concerts we plan to record. We certainly need ambassadors outside the Randstad !

What do we ask of you ?
• Enthusiasm about the Concertzender
• Not afraid to speak to people
• Time to visit concerts

What do we offer ?
• a free visit to the concert
• a very fun team

Want to join ?Then send an email to promotieteam@concertzender.nl in which you tell us something about yourself and what you intend to tell visitors to the concerts.