De Staat on BBC Radio3

For all of you who were not in London for Prom 58 - broadcast including Steve Martland "Beat the Retreat", Louis Andriessen "De Staat" and Cornelis de Bondt "Doors Closed" (London premiere) is available here for six more days.
And there is already detailed review of Prom 58 here.

The Hague, Hacking Views

This photo of Den Haag made in 2003 by superimposing rhythms of different grids makes vivid remembrance to this nice city hacking views.


Photo by Mirko Lazovic

The Hague Hacking Reviews

Labeque sisters, Photo by David Rose

Descriptive reviews from Guardian, The Independent, Evening Standard and Telegraph. As most often is seen, reviewers are more occupied by describing formal issues, than by denoting what new work problematizes in broader context of music and culture.
Hot discussion about "The Hague Hacking" developed on rec.music.classical.recordings Google Group. Although occasionally banal, it offers more contextualization than official reviews.

Proms 2009 Composer Portraits on BBC3

Andrew McGregor talks to Louis Andriessen and introduces performances of his pieces (programme below) at Royal College of Music, London, August 17th (broadcasting available on BBC3 web site until tomorrow).

A Very Sharp Trumpet Sonata
Chris Evans, trumpet

A Very Sad Trumpet Sonata (UK premiere)
Chris Evans, trumpet

Image de Moreau
Richard Uttley, piano

XENIA
Alexandra Rahlina, violin

Bells for Haarlem
Richard Uttley [piano], Thomas Besnard [celesta], Catherine Ring [percussion]

The Hague Hacking on BBC Radio 3

The Hague Hacking Proms 2009 performance is currently accessible via BBC here and you can see Robert Adlington's programme note here (p. 8).

From Liszt viaTom&Jerry to The Hague and the Other Way Round

Replying to complaints about "Rosa, the Death of a Composer" political incorrectness Andriessen said: 'The violence in Rosa is theater; it has more to do with cartoons than with the world around us. I have never heard anyone complaining that Tom & Jerry are politically incorrect, but they are, constantly.'(From The Art of Stealing Time edited by Mirjam Zegers). Tom and Jerry are mentioned again in connection to "The Hague Hacking". Now the award winning 1946 cartoon "Cat Concerto"could be both seen as mediator of 'classical music' and brilliant critique of its world.

More about double piano concerto "The Hague Hacking" by Andriessen himself and the text by John Henken.

De Staat CD by Nederlands Wind Ensemble and Lucas Vis

"De Staat" performance of Nederlands Blazers Ensemble (Nederlands Wind Ensemble) conducted by Lucas Vis is on CD published in 2008 by the ensemble's own label NBElive. CD review by Liam Cagney is available here. The same crew will perform "De Staat" on August 28 in Royal Albert Hall, London.

Proms: The Hague Hacking UK premiere and De Staat

On August 17th and August 28th The Proms feature two Andriessen's compositions in Royal Albert Hall, London.

Prom 43 programme

"Esa-Pekka Salonen makes his first Proms appearance as the Philharmonia’s new Principal Conductor.

The Labèque sisters return for their third and final appearance this season, (see Proms 1 & 32), to celebrate the 70th birthday of the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen with the UK premiere of his new concerto – partly inspired by a Tom and Jerry cartoon, partly by a hardcore brand of house music – which they and Salonen premiered in Los Angeles in January. (Andriessen’s 1970s classic De staat is performed in Prom 58.)

Dance drives the rest of the programme, from Falla’s fiery flamenco vision of a midnight exorcism to Ravel’s magical fairy-tale evocations and the relentless crescendo of his Boléro".

Prom 58 programme

"The Netherlands Wind Ensemble, 50 this year, marks the 70th birthday of radical Dutch Minimalist Louis Andriessen and the 50th of his leading British pupil Steve Martland with performances of Andriessen’s classic polemic De Staat and Martland’s jazz-rock ‘dance fantasia’ Beat the Retreat, commissioned by the BBC for its 1995 Purcell tercentenary celebrations.

Another former pupil of Andriessen, Cornelis de Bondt creates an idiosyncratic death ritual in Doors Closed out of a fusion between the funeral march from Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ (Prom 25) and Dido’s Lament from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Prom 76). Two of tonight’s works call for two or more pianos, in a nod to our Multiple Pianos celebration".

Here you can find Mark Swed's review of world premiere of "The Hague Hacking" performed on January 16 this year in Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, by Katia and Marielle Labèque and LA Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Greeting by Stravinsky

The 'Greeting Prelude' (1955) by Igor Stravinsky performed in Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, by the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw on June 6, 2009, on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Louis Andriessen.

Andriessen Interview on BBC Radio 3

Transcript and recording of the extensive interview by John Tusa that is not dated, but must have been held in 2002 or so.