Image de Moreau Dance

Dance film to Andriessen's "Image de Moreau" performed by Marcela Giesche.

Image de M from Marcela Giesche on Vimeo.

Image de Moreau Box Notes

Recently I got "Image de Moreau" box with nine piano pieces, chosen by the composer, published by MCN.

It includes Andriessen's comment about the pieces: "Strangely enough many of the pieces have some sort of handicap. There are no fewer than three pieces for one hand, left or right. There is one piece which has only chords, as in a Bach chorale. There is even a piece in which not a single note occurs.
The box also contains some birthday presents."

Another note is included, about the graphic design of Louis Andriessen's Image de Moreau box by Bas Mantel:

"The basic assumption for Bas Mantel was to design something different to the traditional piano book, something special, retaining its original functionality at the same time. The front of the box, which holds nine piano booklets, represents the Gustave Moreau painting Dalila, this picture being Louis Andriessen's personal choice.
So as to emphasize graphically the connection between the image and the nine works by Andriessen, Mantel has divided the painting into nine parts, one for each cover. Enlargements of these cuts will stress the details and the figurative symbols in addition to the abstract colour spaces. The composition, the painter's touch, colour, rhythm and texture of the autonomous images are, so to speak, an interpretation analogous to the piece of music. In an indirect manner, Image de Moreau refers by its choice of cover to the Andriessen work Souvenirs d'enfance, which was also published in a box in 1969."

The pieces are: Image de Moreau, Base, Etude Pour Les Timbres, Trois Pieces, Caecilia's Contrapunt, Ricercare, Trepidus, Feli-citazione, Blokken.

Ursula Oppens plays "Image de Moreau", from youtube:

Image de Moreau Box of Piano Scores

At the end of 2009 the publishing department of Muziek Centrum Nederland (MCN) produced a box with nine piano works (scores) by Louis Andriessen selected by himself. These pieces give a representative overview of more than forty years of composing. The front of the box contains Gustave Moreau painting 'Dalila'. Pieces are: Image de Moreau, Base, Etude Pour Les Timbres, Trois Pieces, Caecilia's Contrapunt, Ricercare, Trepidus, Feli-citazione, Blokken. The box does not contain CDs, as I first mistakenly thought.


More info here.
 

Belgrade Archive 2004

These days I am back to my Belgrade archives. In 2004 Louis Andriessen was in Belgrade together with Gilius van Bergeijk, Bernhard Lang and Jasna Velickovic, where their lectures and pieces were part of Composers in First Person festival. You can see photos from this event here.
I made few more pictures:

Louis Andriessen and pianist Nada Kolundzija talking about performance details of Image de Moreau (2004)

Portrait of Louis Andriessen walking along river Danube in Zemun, Belgrade (2004)

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]