And this year the Buma Classical Award goes to… composer Mathilde Wantenaar! In its annual review of copyright income, BumaStemra sees that as a young woman, the 30-year-old Amsterdam woman stands out above a predominantly older and male field of composers and arrangers. A lot of work has been performed, written and on December 8 there was also a striking premiere of her accordion concert in Vienna. It is time to visit her in her apartment in East Amsterdam, where most of that music was written.
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Mathilde Wantenaar | Composer
This Friday, 8 december, the world premiere of my Accordion Concerto written for Vincent van Amsterdam will take place in the Konzerthaus in Vienna performed by van Amsterdam and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Markus Poschner.
"Lyrical, enchanting, eclectic - this is how one could describe the style of Mathilde Wantenaar, a composer born in the Netherlands in 1993. Her oeuvre includes operas, concertos, orchestral and vocal works. She wrote her most recent concerto for her compatriot Vincent van Amsterdam. The award-winning accordionist premieres the work in his Konzerthaus debut alongside the RSO Vienna. In the second half of the concert, the orchestra under Markus Poschner devotes itself to Bruckner's Seventh. With this symphony, Bruckner achieved his international breakthrough, and today it ranks among the classics of the concert repertoire. "At the end of a Bruckner symphony, we experience a feeling of perfection - the feeling of having gone through everything", says conductor Sergiu Celibidache."
More information and tickets: https://konzerthaus.at/concert/eventid/60716
On 17 and 18 November, The Utah Symphony conducted by Markus Poschner performed Prélude à une nuit américaine in Salt Lake City. The Utah Arts Review wrote of the concert:
"Poschner’s enchanting interpretation of the Wantenaar employed a level of subtlety and sensitivity rarely heard in performances of new works. Wantenaar wrote the piece in 2019, when she was 26, on a commission from the Rotterdam Philharmonic. It has a misty, atmospheric quality like the Debussy piece referenced in its title, but with more of a sense of drama and pathos. Wantenaar’s Prelude also has a more advanced harmonic language than Debussy’s, flirting with 12-tone serialism in a post-modern way, while keeping a sense of harmonic tension and resolution.
Wantenaar’s main theme, repeated more than once, features primordial rumbling in the timpani and low strings which grows into scales and arpeggios throughout the orchestra, building to a climax and then dissipating into a gentle melody on solo trumpet or violin. With clear, conscientious phrasing that made use of every note, Poschner infused the piece with a sense of forward-moving tension, pulling back just enough to give its still, delicate moments a chance to breathe."
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