Concertzender Newsletter

Editorial

The Concertzender in May: bird song, electric guitars and the big names of tomorrow

In May you can hear a lot of beautiful and special things on the Concertzender; for example a theme programme by Erik Voermans about the role of the electric guitar in contemporary composed music or the Birdsong Project about how bird song has inspired artists such as Nick Cave, Beck, Laurie Anderson, Yo Yo Ma, Daniel Lanois and John Cale .

Woodcraft in de Concertzender studio And did you know that almost every week in our Concertzender Now programme young musicians get the chance to perform live in our studio? Musicians who are at the end of their studies or have just graduated? The big names of tomorrow will let you hear their music and talk passionately about it.

For example, on May 24th with the Van Baaren Trio as our guests. With their special line-up of flute, clarinet and bassoon, Alise Anna Alksne, Lucas Bernal Sandoval and Edgars Karpenskis-Allažs play music by 20th century composers with an emphasis on music from their countries of birth, Lithuania and Spain.

Listen: Concertzender Now can be heard every Wednesday between 14:00 and 16:00 CET.

Wednesday June 21

Pre-announcement donor meeting

On Wednesday 21st June, Leo Samama will give a lecture entitled All music is always contemporary, especially for Concertzender donors. It may be a strange observation, but all music is always contemporary. We simply cannot listen in the past.

Leo Samama The music of Machaut, Monteverdi or Mozart is just as contemporary to our ears and brain as that of Manneke, de Marez Oyens or Martynov. We can listen to the past, for example to a sound recording from 1920 or 1970. But not in the past. And because there are no sound recordings of performances from the time of Beethoven or Bach, we can therefore never experience the sound of it – as it sounded at the time. We remain exiles in our own time.

Leo Samama will elaborate on this fascinating phenomenon on the basis of listening and thinking examples.

Leo Samama is a composer and musicologist. He has written books on various subjects in classical music. For the Concertzender he makes the programme The String Quartet.

Lecture for donors: All music is always contemporary, Wednesday June 21, 14:00 - 16:00 CET, Theater Kikker (Foyer), Ganzenmarkt 14, Utrecht. You can register via e-mail: vrienden@concertzender.nl or via our website (from May 22nd).

Wednesday May 10

Theme: Contemporary Music

The electric guitar in contemporary composed music

Is this minimal music, is this pop music, or is it something in between? About the role of the electric guitar in contemporary composed music. In the programme Theme of 10th May compiler Erik Voermans presents the very first piece written for the electric guitar within a modern-classical framework.

Morton Feldman composed a short solo piece for his friend Christian Wolff in 1966, which has gone down in history under the title The possibilty of a new work for electric guitar. Wolff performed the piece three times and then it disappeared off the face of the earth, as Wolff's guitar case was stolen from his car. The case also contained the only extant sheet music. Fortunately, a 1967 radio recording of the play surfaced four decades later and could be transcribed, bringing it back to life.

With the theme 'the electric guitar' we inevitably encounter the boundaries between the genres classical and pop. Boundaries that can hardly be demarcated credibly.

Listen: Theme, Wednesday May 10, 20:00 - 22:00 CET. Compiler: Erik Voermans.

Weekdays and on demand

Theme: Classical

Bach Ad Infinitum: from ecclesiastical agenda to chronology

Almost every episode of the program Bach Ad Infinitum starts with a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. We follow the division for the church year. With five episodes per week, which are repeated the following week, it is quite difficult to present all the cantatas completely up to date, and we often have to compromise.

After all, most cantatas are made for Sundays, and are therefore included in the church calendar on those days. Bach Ad Infinitum does not broadcast on Sundays. So our approach is always a compromise, and that doesn't really matter.

detail partituur Bach In 2024 there will be a double anniversary. In that year, the oldest songs by Martin Luther will be 500 years old, and the chorale cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach will be 300 years old. Bach connoisseur Eduard van Hengel suggested that we take a different approach with our episodes and follow Johann Sebastian to Leipzig with a 300-year delay.

A good idea and a reason to change our cantata approach. After Passiontide we will let go of the ecclesiastical agenda, and we will follow the development of his cantatas chronologically and Johann Sebastian in his footsteps, arriving in 2024 at the extensive commemoration of 300 years of Bach's chorale cantatas. Through our podcast series Bach & Co we will also delve deeper into the zeitgeist, music and theology.

Via this link you can subscribe to the podcast Bach & Co (in Dutch). Several options are available, a.o. Spotify, Apple Podcast and Android.

Listen: the first broadcast of Bach Ad Infinitum according to the new approach, Monday May 1, 13:00 - 14:00 CET.

Thursday May 4

Theme: Early Music

In Memoriam James Bowman

At the end of March 2023, the well-known English countertenor James Bowman passed away. On Thursday 4 May we will broadcast the final part of a three-part In Memoriam in Documento. This final part highlights his role in medieval and renaissance music.

It is not generally known that Bowman also sang this type of music. We hear him in recordings with The Early Music Consort of London, an ensemble led by David Munrow. James Bowman, along with Alfred Deller, pioneered singing in the falsetto register, also known as 'countertenor' or 'altus'.

In 1967, recorder player David Munrow founded The Early Music Consort of London and Bowman was a member from the start. He made many recordings of medieval and renaissance music with this ensemble, mainly of secular repertoire. We hear excerpts from two albums, The Art of Courtly Love (1973) and The Art of the Netherlands (1976).

Finally, we hear Bowman in lute songs by John Dowland, some of the many recordings Bowman made together with lutenist Robert Spencer.

Listen: Documento (In Memoriam James Bowman, part 3), Thursday May 4, 21:00 - 22:00 CET. The broadcast will be repeated on Tuesday May 16, 11:00 - 12:00 CET.

Wednesdays May 3, May 10 and June 7

Theme: Crosslinks

The Birdsong Project

May is of course the perfect month to listen to the song of the birds around us. We do this in a series of three broadcasts, not so much with pure field recordings, but with work by artists who have been inspired by birds.

In Popart we present a selection from For The Birds: The Birdsong Project: an extensive box set with contributions from no fewer than 245 artists. You will hear work from artists including Nick Cave, Beck, Laurie Anderson, Yo Yo Ma, Peter Broderick, Daniel Lanois and John Cale. And that is only some of the better-known names from this atmospheric mix of pop, folk, modern classical, jazz and electronica.

A program that therefore fits perfectly in Concertzender's 'Crosslinks'. And what about the birds? Yes, of course, you can hear some of them as well!

Listen: The Birdsong Project in Popart, Wednesday May 3, Wednesday May 10 and Wednesday June 7, 22:00 - 23:00 CET.

Fourth Friday of every month

Theme: World Music

A new direction for Folkit!: Folkit! Mediterranean

Regular listeners will already know that Folkit! Is moving in a new direction. Instead of Disco Volante, which focused on Italy’s rich musical traditions, Folkit! Mediterranean is also exploring music from the other countries of the Mediterranean.

The regular team behind Folkit!, Geert de Vos and Marius Roeting, with the assistance of Karel Kooijman, have already started this exploration in recent months. For example, there was a broadcast about the Turkish legend Selda Bağcan, the Algerian-French singer Rachid Taha and the Balkan specialist Michiel van der Meulen.

This already demonstrates that the listener can expect music in all kinds of styles and genres (rebetiko, flamenco, ladino, chaabi and raï to name but a few), traditional or modern, vintage or contemporary recordings, taken from cassette or from vinyl. Just as long as it is exciting and adventurous, as you would expect from us.

Your own suggestions or ideas are always welcome via info@concertzender.nl.

Folkit! Mediterranean is broadcast on the fourth Friday of every month at 19:00 CET and repeated the next Friday at 17:00 CET.

Listen: Michiel van der Meulen in Folkit! Mediterranean, Friday May 5, 17:00 - 18:00 CET (repeat broadcast).