Concertzender Newsletter

Editorial

Higher Levels

You can be too successful for your own good. That’s what happened to the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, whose Pines of Rome overshadowed lots of other music. But no need for panic: Evert Jan Nagtegaal will be helping you this month by playing pearls from Respighi’s vocal oeuvre in his programme Die sanck een Liedt.

Roel Jansen reaches even greater heights, when his successful Space Exposure goes out on Sunday evening 19th May for the 100th time. In honour thereof Roel has put together a special episode with highlights of 100 times ambient, trance, breakbeat, hiphop and other subgenres within today’s music. He talks about that to Lucy Vermeij, who interviewed him for the Concertzender. Clara Schumann is our composer of the month and we’re on course with Beethoven. Lots of listening pleasure!

starting January 2020

Theme: Classical Music

Project Beethoven 2020 under way

Next year is the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth. The Concertzender couldn’t stand on the sidelines so has formed a substantial Beethoven team to broadcast all of the Rhineland master’s works. Time for an update. Beethoven 2020

The timing of all the pieces according to the Beethoven Edition by Brilliant Classics has now been announced and incorporated into the planning and we can now give more details about the broadcasts. Production starts in September 2019 . In the meantime work is being done on the composition of the production team (production, technical, presentation) and the format of the broadcasts. Three top technicians have already agreed to help: Aart Veerman, Jan uit het Broek and Marco Wensveen. The highly experienced presentation team of Concertzender Actueel is ready for the presentation of the broadcasts in 2020. Pauline Verburg, Rahul Gandolahage, Stef Lokin and Evert Jan Nagtegaal.

Sundays 12th and 26th May 2019

Theme: Classical Music

Artsongs: Ottorino Respighi

By Lucie Th. Vermij

On 12th and 26th May the programme Die sanck een Liedt will be devoted to the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, famous for the symphony The Pines of Rome. A conversation with Evert Jan Nagtegaal, baritone and programme maker of the programme Die sanck een Liedt about the Art of Song and about Respighi.

Why the Art of Song?
“Workers in the fields sung songs together, soldiers on the battlefields sung marching songs, children sing songs while playing, songs are sung during religious meetings. After man had started speaking, he started singing too. These songs were never written down but passed down from generation to generation. Instrumental accompaniments were mostly improvisation. Schubert wrote new songs first and then added a complete accompaniment. The Artsong was born. Songs, Artsong, the Song. A poem which gets an added dimension through melody and accompaniment. So first the words and then the notes.

After Schubert came Schumann, Brahms Strauss and Mahler. In the Netherlands Gerrit Jan van Eijken, Diepenbrock. In France, Fauré, Duparc, Hahn, Debussy. Foster in America and Vaughan Williams in Great Britain. The artsong tooks its place alongside the folksong, in which the text is usually not poetry and the accompaniment doesn’t underscore the words.”

Theme: Classical Music

Clara Schumann: composer of the month

20th May is the date our Composer of the Month, Clara Schumann (1819-1896) died. For a long time she was chiefly known as the wife of Robert Schumann. The second feminist wave in the 60’s and 70’s stimulated more interest in female composers. Clara Schuman has benefitted from this.

As well as being a composer and wife she was one of the best pianists of her time. She performed in the Netherlands with great success. On 7th May the Concertzender devoted a broadcast to Clara Schumann’s piano music. The programme we broadcast on May 15th can be listened to via this link.

If you want to hear more of this composer listen on the coming Tuesdays of this and next month to the series about Clara Schumann, made by Cassandra van Agt.

Sunday 19th May 2019

Theme: Crosslinks

The 100th journey into space: Space Exposure

By Lucie Th. Vermij

On Sunday 19 May from 19:00 to 21:00 CET, the Concertzender is broadcasting episode #100 of Space Exposure. Roel Janssen makes this programme. The music that he plays ranges from dark danceable uptempo techno to serene melancholic ambient. Roel Jansen says this about his choice of music: “This is music that allows you to ascend to a higher level and to break out of your daily routine.”

Tell us, who is Roel Janssen?
“I am a journalist, editor, dj/producer and programme maker. I am also a freelance author of crime stories for Panorama and Crimesite. I was a music journalist for many years and since 2015 I have also been a DJ and the maker of the radio programme Space Exposure that is broadcast on the first, third and even the fifth (if there is one) Sunday of each month from 20:00 to 21:00 CET. As a fanatical music fan, I also go to countless concerts and festivals in the Netherlands and in the rest of the world.

In June 2018 I also released my debut album as Space Exposure with the title The Subliminal Serval: a raw and freaky record with electronic music that incorporates IDM, techno, breakbeat, ambient, hiphop, noise, samples, field recordings and contributions from two guest guitarists. Later on this year a follow-up EP will also be released with new and previously unreleased material.”

Theme: Classical Music

Prize draw

The competition question last month was about Franz Schubert: When did he compose his Schwanengesang and what was the original title of this work?

The correct answer was that he composed his Schwanengesang in 1828 and that the original title of this work was Probst. The name Schwanengesang was given to the work by the publisher Tobias Haslinger in order to make it easier to sell it as Schubert’s musical testament after Schubert died later in 1828. The winner of the CD is A. v.d. Schaaf from Leeuwarden.

This month’s question:
For whom did Henriette Bosmans compose several cello works? And why do you think she did this? The prize is the CD Bosmans & Bridge with works for cello and piano by Frank Bridge & Henriette Bosmans. Performers: Mayke Rademaker, cello. Matthijs Verschoor, piano [Quintone Q 07002].

Send your answer to prijsvraag@concertzender.nl before the 10th of June.