Rhapsody for piano and strings

Whilst writing my Rhapsody for piano and strings I wanted to create something playful, energetic, groovy, shameless, and fun. Something that would feel a bit like listening to a children’s adventure story, although I had no actual story in mind. Years ago I wrote three musical fairy tales for solo violin and piano. I originally planned to write four, but the last one never materialised. The musical theme of the fourth fairytale, however, stayed with me all these years, waiting to be developed and I finally decided to do so. Another key inspiration is Bach. When Daria approached me to write a new composition, the starting point was Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 (BWV 1050.2). I listened to it a lot and it certainly inspired me, but I also became captivated by his d minor concerto (BWV 1052) with its relentless pace, continuous energy, and strong rhythmical components. In the Rhapsody, I hoped to echo this drive. I made use extensively of the 12/8 bar (sometimes 6/4), which can be subdivided both in groups of four or three, allowing for groovy poly-pulses and also some playful poly-pulse polyphonic passages (try saying that very quickly!). I found a beautiful example of this technique in a fugue in d minor from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier no. 2. But Bach was not the only source of inspiration. Because the structure of the piece resembles a journey, it allowed me to draw from different musical languages to create a variety of colours and atmospheres. In the piece, the piano often plays the role of the protagonist - varying in mood from valiant and audacious to dreamily naive or hopelessly romantic - but at other times the strings tell their own story or even take over completely.
TROUW: Mathilde Wantenaar wrote a delightfully sprightly piece for Free the Piano Biënniale.

Mathilde Wantenaar's new piano concerto, inspired by Bach, had its world premiere in London on Sunday and had its first performance in the Netherlands here. What a delightful piece this is, with a fantastic opening theme that breaks free from a rhythmic string of tone repeats on the piano. The theme had been singing around in Wantenaar's head for years, waiting to be deployed one day. It darts wonderfully into the piece and often returns as an ear-worming pop-up motif in various guises throughout the composition. 'My sprightly Rhapsody wants to go all the way' Wantenaar wrote a piece that is delightfully not of this era, harking back to a carefree time when triads and sonorous harmonies had not yet been jettisoned. It is written with great skill, crisp in structure and bursting with pure playing pleasure. It has the drive of fellow composer Joey Roukens, is slightly less rough, but just as uplifting. As Wantenaar put it beforehand during a chat with Van den Bercken, "My sprightly Rhapsody wants to go all the way". After more than 15 minutes, the piece ended in the same rhythmic zing of the piano. Van den Bercken and Britten Sinfonia made it a real experience. Wantenaar's Rhapsody also figures in Listen First, a 3D music installation in a dome tent, which is free to visit. Entering on stocking feet, the tent is highlighted in pink. You can walk around or lie down on the soft surface. While walking, as if in the composition, you discover different facets of Wantenaar 's music, from which fragments can be heard. Sometimes the piano is nearby, sometimes a viola or a cello. You choose for yourself. Nice.

Peter van der Lint, Trouw, 20 April 2023.

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DE VOLKSKRANT: At the Piano Biennale, Mathilde Wantenaar's Rhapsody for Piano and Strings proved to be a sunny, playful piece.

For the second edition, through Sunday, striking keyboard types from halfway around the world had been brought to Arnhem and Nijmegen. Bad luck that was, in 2021. Were Arnhem and Nijmegen warming up to a new Piano Biennale, the coronavirus drove the first edition to the internet. On Wednesday, you could understand the relief of pianist Daria van den Bercken, the founder and artistic director. For the second edition, through Sunday, she is bringing striking keyboard types from halfway around the world to the eastern Netherlands. Free the Piano, was the slogan of the opening concert. There was something to be said for kicking off with Bach's Fifth Brandenburg Concerto. Admittedly, he wrote the piece for harpsichord and small orchestra, but the frenzied, never-before-seen solo that emerges can be explained in emancipatory terms. Alas, how correct it sounded. Even though the soloist, Iranian American Mahan Esfahani, likes to portray himself as the enfant terrible of the harpsichord profession. Esfahani's Bach rattled virtuoso, but the story of a spectacular release was missing. If Mathilde Wantenaar wanted to free the piano from something, it must be the shackles of modernism. Her Rhapsody for Piano and Strings received its world premiere in London last week. At Nijmegen concert hall De Vereeniging, it turned out to be a sunny, playful piece that unfolded like a spring day. Wantenaar built a tight construction, with repeating tones, main and subsidiary motifs. Rachmaninov blew by, Bach popped up. Nice how the piano sometimes melded with the English strings of Britten Sinfonia. Life was good, under the fingers of Daria van den Bercken. But with Free the Piano, you'd rather expect something revolutionary.

Guido van Oorschot, 20 April, 2023.

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NRC: Piano Biennale successfully launched with new piano concerto Wantenaar.

The first real Piano Biennale kicked off in Nijmegen on Wednesday. In corona time there was also an online edition, but now there is plenty of live piano music in filled halls in Arnhem and Nijmegen for five days. And filled was the cosily decorated Vereeniging. The average age was also a lot lower than is often the case at classical concerts. The Piano Biennale is the brainchild of pianist Daria van den Bercken, who was present everywhere as a radiant hostess and who also performed brilliantly in Mathilde Wantenaar ' s new piano concerto. The opening concert Free the piano immediately showed the festival's ambition to think outside the box. Indeed, besides Wantenaar, Britten Sinfonia also played Bach's fifth Brandenburg Concerto , which was composed not for piano but for harpsichord. In Bach's work, Van den Bercken explained from the stage, we witness the birth of the keyboard as a solo instrument. So this evening, the very first and the very latest piano concerto faced each other. Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani made this once more clear with his frenzied solo cadence: the harpsichord broke out of its accompaniment role here and immediately steamed up through centuries of musical history, with swirling note storms and pounding rhythms. Esfahani's leering glances into the hall left no mistaking the music-historical weight of the moment. Then the slow movement, a trio with flutist Thomas Hancox and violinist Thomas Gould, was blood-curdlingly beautiful. Wantenaar' s new work had its world premiere at the Barbican Centre in London last week, underlining once again. With her Rhapsody for piano and strings , Wantenaar wrote an energetic and upbeat work bursting with zest for action. After the hammering single-note motif with which soloist Van den Bercken opened the dance, the main theme followed, a broad gesture of dashing chords, followed by a driving rhythm on the keynote. Against this were rhythmically free piano reflections. The work constantly alternated between these two tracks, in a colourful, romantic, sometimes verging on neoclassical fantasy music, which was rhythmically and harmonically sophisticated enough to captivate from beginning to end. A very good idea of the Piano Biennale was the '3D music show' Listen First , in which you could listen to Wantenaar' s work before (or after) the premiere. And not just listen: on stocking feet, you were led into a pastel-pink dome, with a mattress floor and speakers all around. It sounded as if you were standing in the middle of the ensemble. You could lie down, or walk around, influencing your perception of the music: closer to the piano, closer to the cellos. The more often you listen, the more you hear, and especially with new music, this is a great bonus.

Joep Stapel, NRC Handelsblad, 20 April 2023.

Mathilde Wantenaar | Composer

Rhapsody for piano and strings

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