Rosa's Horses World Premiere

A new orchestral suite Rosa's Horses, arranged from Louis Andriessen's opera by Clark Rundell, was premiered at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam today. Amsterdam's Zaterdag Matinee series plays host on 18 May to the premiere of a new Andriessen orchestral suite, Rosa's Horses, drawn from his 1994 operatic collaboration with Peter Greenaway, ROSA. The 25-minute suite has been arranged by Clark Rundell who worked closely with the composer on this and an earlier suite Vermeer Pictures based on Andriessen's opera Writing to Vermeer, following in the historic tradition of creating suites from stageworks to allow the music to be heard outside the opera house. Rundell conducts the first performance of Rosa's Horses at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra. Clark Rundell writes: "When Louis and I worked together on Vermeer Pictures I started listening again to his first major Greenaway collaboration, Rosa. Louis likes to call Vermeer his feminine daughter and there's no doubt that Rosa is the masculine son! From the first bar of wildly chasing canons led by the saxophones, the piece hurtles through music which evokes the sound world of a pastiche Spaghetti Western, full of energy, wit and irony. However, these helter skelter moments remain carefully balanced with moments of utter beauty, even timeless suspension. I cannot wait to bring this music to life - important, glorious music which has not been heard live for over fifteen years." Read more here.. Toy horse from "Rosa, the Death of a Composer", Photo by J. Novak

New book: De Andriessens

Agnes van der Horst's book "De Andriessens: A colorful family of musicians and artists" was published recently (in Dutch). In this biography journalist and musicologist Van der Horst describes extraordinary family of musicians and artists including three major Dutch composers, Hendrik, Jurriaan and Louis, and also sculptor Mari Andriessen, the creator of "The Dock Worker Monument" in Amsterdam.