Concertzender Newsletter

Editorial

The Concertzender in June: Groundbreaking music and it is being noticed!

We are already celebrating our anniversary this year and perhaps there will be an extra party: we have been nominated for the Silver Reiss Microphone!

A great tribute to our programme makers and all volunteers who ensure that music from all corners and times is heard on digital radio. And of course to our listeners who listen faithfully and with their donations have kept the Concertzender on the air all these years!

Also in June you can discover gems from musicians and composers who have pushed the boundaries. That musical journey will continue for a while, if it is up to us.

Thursday June 13th

Theme: General

Nominated!

Hooray, the Concertzender has been nominated for the Silver Reiss Microphone!

This prestigious Dutch radio prize has been awarded since 1966 and is named after Eugen Reisz, who improved microphones in 1924 to such an extent that radio professionals started using this radio microphone.

This year the Concertzender is one of the three nominees. The jury has seen and heard our mission: “Precisely because the Concertzender shows so many beautiful things that other media - public or commercial - do not offer space for, the Concertzender is and will remain of great cultural importance.” And that makes us very proud!

The winner will be announced on June 13th.

Theme: Classical

Birthday party in An Early Evening Stroll

“What's a birthday party without champagne?”, thought Johan Strauss. You will hear many champagne corks popping in a special anniversary edition of An Early Evening Stroll.

champagne and fireworks Programme maker Thijs Bonger has made loose associations around the theme of birthdays. A festive journey, criss-crossing music history, unhindered by any form of chronology. With often visual and/or witty music in all kinds of genres. You can hear Happy Birthday in many variations and Stravinsky sets off musical fireworks. And we count the popping corks in Strauss' Polka.

Listen: An Early Evening Stroll, Tuesday June 4th, 19:00 - 20:00 CET

You can listen to more programmes that were specially created for our anniversary. For example, listen to the three Theme broadcasts focused on the top performances of CZ Hollandia. In other words, the finest highlights from the catalogue of Dutch contemporary music.

Listen: Theme - CZ Hollandia (part 1), broadcast on Wednesday April 24th.

Listen: Theme - CZ Hollandia (part 2), broadcast on Wednesday May 22nd.

Part 3 will air on Wednesday June 26th.

Wednesday June 12th

Theme: Contemporary Music

Listen differently

With immersive listening, which means deeply submerged listening, the listener becomes so absorbed in the sounds that he forgets everything around him.

Music that lends itself well to this is the work of the American composer Pauline Oliveros. In 1988 she recorded in a deep underground water reservoir, a space with enormous reverberation. Together with trombonist Stuart Dempster and vocalist and electronicist Peter Ward, she recorded a number of pieces for an album that she half-jokingly called Deep Listening.

A good option for Immersive Listening is also Stimmung by Karlheinz Stockhausen, a work for six unaccompanied voices, in which he explores the sound possibilities of the overtone spectrum of the note B flat. Stimmung was one of the pieces that had a profound influence on the French spectralists who were very popular from the 1970s onwards. Spectralism is also essentially a game with overtones. The accompanying music lends itself very well to immersive listening.

Listen: Theme, Wednesday June 12th, 20:00 - 22:00 CET.

Saturday June 15th

Theme: Jazz

Thrilling Vibes

In The House of Hard Bop the second episode of the story about vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson will be aired on June 15th. In the 1960s he was one of the jazz musicians who, having grown up with and in bebop, started to push musical boundaries.

Bobby Hutcherson Traditional forms such as the 12-part blues and the song form - e.g. AABA - were no longer taken for granted. In the area of 'pitch organization' - think major/minor - and the resulting chords, other possibilities presented themselves. Electronics broadened the sound color palette with (bass) guitar, electric piano and synthesizer. And why should you maintain one fixed pace from start to finish? That sort of thing.

Bobby Hutcherson recorded several albums for Blue Note Records in the 1960s in a quintet line-up, with tenorist Harold Land as co-leader. The avant-garde route taken does not sound searching/experimental, but comes across as clear and well-thought-out. Listen. Are you raising your eyebrows while listening? Keep listening!

Listen: House of Hard Bop - Thrilling Vibes (episode 2), Saturday, June 15th, 17:00 - 18:00 CET.

Listen: House of Hard Bop - Thrilling Vibes (episode 1), broadcast Saturday May 18th.

Read: the news item about Thrilling Vibes (episode 1).

Sunday June 9th

Theme: Early Music

Discount on the B Minor Mass by Herreweghe in the Concertgebouw

Bach's B Minor Mass (Hohe Messe): it is a monument in classical music (and according to Bach even his most complete work). It was recently played in Bach Ad Infinitum.

On Sunday afternoon, June 9th at 15:00 CET, this masterpiece will be performed live by the world-famous Collegium Vocale Gent conducted by Philippe Herreweghe in the beautiful Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. As soloists we hear Dorothee Mields, Hana Blazíková and Alex Potter.

Readers of our newsletter receive a discount on this one-off concert! The offer applies to a €15 discount on row 1 and row 1+ or a €5 discount on row 2.

Click here to make a discount reservation for the Hohe Messe.

Fridayday May 31st to Sunday June 2nd

Advertorial

The seventieth edition of the Dag in de Branding festival

Visit Festival Dag in de Branding from May 31st to June 2nd. The presentation of the Willem Pijper Prize is central to this seventieth edition of the festival.

Composers Cecilia Arditto and Trevor Grahl receive the composition prize from the Municipality of The Hague in Amare by councilor Saskia Bruines. At the festival you will discover the latest music in three days at various locations in The Hague and in the Orgelpark Amsterdam.

View the programme here.