La Commedia CD/DVD to be released soon

Nonesuch Records releases Louis Andriessen’s Grawemeyer Award–winning La Commedia on June 10, 2014, as a set with two CDs and a DVD. The film opera, a collaboration with director Hal Hartley, is based on Dante’s Divine Comedy, with additional texts from the 16th-century German theologian Sebastian Brant, the 17th-century Dutch dramatist Joost van den Vondel, and the Old Testament’s “Song of Songs.” This Dutch National Opera production features the Asko and Schönberg Ensembles, led by Reinbert de Leeuw, with vocal soloists Claron McFadden (Beatrice), Cristina Zavalloni (Dante), Jeroen Willems (Lucifer/Cacciaguida), and Marcel Beekman (Casella). The children’s choral parts are sung by Waterland’s Kinderkoor De Kickers, conducted by Jan Maarten Koeman.
More info here.

Tap Dance World Premiere

Today Colin Currie gives the world premiere of Louis Andriessen’s percussion concerto, Tapdance. He performs with the Asko|Schoenberg Ensemble under the baton of Reinbert de Leeuw at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam as part of their ZaterdagMatinee series. “The large ensemble has 18 players plus strings and produces a ghostly recollection of the slow jazz blues from the 1950s and ’60s, with particular reference to the music of Horace Silver. The trajectory of the piece is the opposite to what you might expect: it moves from energy to melancholy, and is something of a homage to the Percussion Concerto by Milhaud, where positive vigour is increasingly supplanted by sadness and desperation – a very intriguing approach.” More info about the piece here.

Two Early Birthday Concerts

May 8, Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam
Concert with Asko|Schönberg, Nieuw Amsterdams Peil, Reinbert de Leeuw, Claron McFadden, Cristina Zavalloni and Monica Germino, film screenings, book presentation.
More info here.

May 9, Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam
Film "Imperfect Harmony" by Carmen Cobos
Concert with Nieuw Amsterdams Peil, Asko|Schönberg, Cristina Zavalloni and Slagwerk Den Haag.
Click here for more info.