Belgian premiere Prélude à une nuit Américaine by Antwerp Symphony Orchestra

Tonight (24 March), my Prélude à une nuit Américaine will have its Belgian premiere, performed by the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Eduardo Strausser in the Koningin Elisabethzaal. Nine years ago as part of the soundmine course for composition the orchestra played my first small orchestral piece ‘Schemering’, conducted and during the entire process lovingly coached by Wim Henderickx. This was a pivotal moment for me. Happy, but also sad, I am in Antwerp today. I would have loved to share this moment with Wim and to thank him again for everything he has done for me.

Lieder der Vergänglichkeit

The Dutch premier of the Lieder der Vergänglichkeit, performed by Katrien Baerts and Het Collectief will take place in De Link in Tilburg. The songs, written especially for winery Alois Lageder, were first performed on 1 October in South Tirol.

The song cycle is commissioned by the Alois Lageder winery for their vin-o-ton concert series that takes place yearly at their beautiful vineyard in Italy. As part of the commission, I was invited to visit the winery to, surrounded by the mountains of Alto Adige, let myself be inspired. For me, as representative of possibly the most well-ordered and flat little country, the untouched and rough beauty of nature and the awe-inspiring, sublime mountains, that make a human feel small and inconsequential, were most impressive. At the same time, I felt sheltered in the lovely valley and its vineyards, embraced by the same mountains. A more idyllic location than Paradeis, the beating heart of the winery and the location of the première, is difficult to imagine. The wine of Alois Lageder is biodynamic. This means in practice that the whole production process is as much as possible in harmony with nature. In Autumn, the oxen walk between the ancient vines, with bells around their neck that ring softly in the night. The process of making wine is centuries old, but very new compared to the ancient rhythm of the mountains; their millennia-long rising and decaying. This fills me with a sense of happiness and sadness at the same time. It filled me with an awareness of the cyclic character of nature and its transience (Vergänglichkeit), both the happy and sad side of it. I was struck by the sense that everything passes and at the same time is part of the eternal beauty; that nothing is permanent but everything repeats. I have chosen a number of German poems that express this atmosphere for a song cycle called Lieder der Vergänglichkeit. I hesitated for a moment about picking this name because the famous composer Penderecki used the same name for his eighth symphony, but decided not to let this stop me. The idea had taken hold of me. Moreover, the context is very different (soprano and ensemble instead of symphony orchestra) and the theme and texts are rich enough to allow for multiple musical interpretations.

Violin concerto for Simone Lamsma

Violinist Simone Lamsma did not have to think for long when the ZaterdagMatinee asked her who she would like to play a new violin concerto by. Her answer: ‘Mathilde Wantenaar’, the young Dutch composer who made her Matinee debut in 2019 with the choral work Dit zijn de bleeke, bleeklichte weken, on a text by Herman Gorter. Asked about her choice, Lamsma reveals, ‘Wantenaar's music is colourful and immediately captured my imagination. What immediately struck me on hearing her work is the directness in expression. Mathilde's musical voice is authentic. She writes in a language I feel very connected to.’

On Saturday afternoon 24 September 2022 at 14.15, the new violin concerto will be premiered at the ZaterdagMatinee in The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, performed by Simone Lamsma and the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Karina Canellakis.

The concert can also be listened to and watched online at this link: https://www.nporadio4.nl/concerten/02a76be9-f014-4a0b-9cec-902970f7710c/een-nieuwe-wantenaar-voor-simone-lamsma