The Family Revisited, Review and Concert Video

Frits van der Waa sends the translation of his November Music concert review published in De Volkskrant on October 11th. What follows are fragments of Clazz ensemble playing live at the Dutch Classical Music Meeting - Muziekgebouw aan het IJ - Amsterdam - on October 17th 2011. "The Family Revisited"(1973-2011) and "That happens in Vietnam" are included.

Review:
Den Bosch is now the place to be for new music lovers. The annual festival November Music presents an overview of the latest developments in composed and improvised music. Incongruentially, the first evening of the festival focused on music from the past. The concert by the Clazz Ensemble, labeled His Master’s Choice, offered a concise overview of mostly older works by Louis Andriessen, at 72 still the foremost Dutch composer. The protagonist managed to slip in some new notes, though: only the evening before the concert he tossed off a new violin accompaniment for an Italian song singer Cristina Zavalloni had planned as an in-between. Typically, even a casual composition like this contains the poignant harmonies that are among Andriessens musical fingerprints. Zavalloni and Monica Germino, her peer on the violin, who did some lovely singing as well in Xenia Fragments, gave strong performances of several Andriessen compositions.
There was a real premiere as well, Monument for Graettinger, especially composed for the Clazz Ensemble. Robert Graettinger, arranger for the Stan Kentons Orchestra and composer of a few strikingly revolutionary pieces, is one of Andriessens long-standing idols. The new piece is a short but strong statement, full of gritty, complex harmonies, countrerbalanced with melancholy melodic lines. The Clazz musicians, operating on the boundaries between classical and jazz music (hence the name), had opportunity to add improvisations of their own.
One of the more substantial pieces in this program is The Family Revisited, a forceful new version of the music Andriessen wrote in 1973 for the movie The Family. Arranger Dick de Graaf took the position of the great saxophone player Piet Noordijk, deceased only a month ago, who played many solo parts in the original score. The performance was accompanied with scenes from the movie, which unfortunately turned out to be rather old hat and mainly distracted from the music.

The Family Revisited (1973-2011)




That happens in Vietnam (1972-2011)

Y Después Video

The video of "Y Después" (1983) for voice and piano is now online.
Music: Louis Andriessen
Text: Federico García Lorca
Vocal: Astrid Seriese
Ensemble: De Volharding
Film/Dance: Betsy Torenbos



This is the original text in Spanish by Federico García Lorca (1898 - 1936), followed by English translation:

Sólo Queda el Desierto (Y Después)

Los laberintos
que crea el tiempo
se desvanecen.

(Sólo queda
el desierto)

El corazón
fuente del deseo,
se desvanece.

(Sólo queda
el desierto)

La ilusión de la aurora
y los besos
se desvanecen.

Sólo queda
el desierto.
Un ondulado
desierto.


Only the Desert Remains (And Then)

The labyrinths
that time creates
vanish.

(Only the desert
remains.)

The heart,
fountain of desire,
vanishes.

(Only the desert
remains.)

The illusion of dawn
and kisses
vanish.

Only the desert
remains.
Undulating
desert.

Translated by Cola Franzen

War

Louis Andriessen on the destruction of the Dutch Music Institute and the Music Centre Netherlands, as part of a grand assault on subsidized culture.

"La Girò" Photo Log

Monica Germino in "La Girò", Milan, Sept 5th 2011, Teatro Dal Verme

Photo All rights reserved by MITO SettembreMusica

Monica Germino, Louis Andriessen after "La Girò" World premiere, Milan, Sept 5th 2011, Teatro Dal Verme

Photo All rights reserved by MITO SettembreMusica

"La Girò" World Premiere

MITO Settembre Musica Festival: 5 & 6 September in Milan & Torino - world premiere of La Girò (2011) by Louis Andriessen
Louis Andriessen’s La Girò (2011), composed for violin and large ensemble, features Monica Germino as soloist, and has a distinctly Italian theme. The title refers to Anna Girò, a high-profile singer and muse of Antonio Vivaldi.
Andriessen: “In La Girò I am musing about a composer I admire a lot: maestro Antonio Vivaldi. The piece would not have become the 'performance' it is without its dedicatee, the violinist Monica Germino. The soloist (La Girò, perhaps?) does not only play the violin. She also sings an Italian song, whispers and talks, tells stories and dreams. The ensemble consists of a small chamber orchestra, with an added piano, harp, cimbalom and some percussion. The piece has four parts: the first three form a kind of concertino while the actual musical drama takes place in the fourth, slow part.”
World premiere: MITO Settembre Musica Festival (2011), Milan and Turin, Italy
5 September, 21.00: Teatro Dal Verme; Milano, Italy - Live broadcast by Italian National Radio 3
6 September, 21.00: Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi; Torino, Italy
Monica Germino, violin/voice; David Atherton, conductor; London Sinfonietta; Sound Intermedia
Info London Sinfonietta
Info MITO
Info Boosey

Netherlands premiere: 12 January 2012, 20.15
Donderdagavondserie-PROMS: The dreams of Anna Girò; Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam
Monica Germino, violin/voice; Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor; Asko|Schönberg
Live broadcast by Dutch National Radio 4 (NTR)

USA premiere: 28 February 2012, 20.00     
Green Umbrella Series: Walt Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Monica Germino, violin/voice; Cristina Zavalloni, voice; Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor; L.A. Philharmonic New Music Group

"Workers Union" and "De Volharding" in Seattle

The Box Is Empty performs Louis Andriessen's "Workers Union" and "De Volharding" (Perseverance). 
Thursday 25 August 2011, 8:00 p.m., at the Chapel at the Good Shepherd Center, 4649 Sunnyside Avenue North, Seattle, WA.
With Ivan Arteaga, Holly Carlton, and Jay Gillespie, saxophones; Nicole Herrald, Chris McGann, and Erik Reed, trumpets; Steve Herrald, Jen Hinkle, and Masa Ohtake, trombones; Amanda Harris, piano; Maria Mannisto, amplified voice; and Evan Woodle, percussion.  Jeremiah Cawley, conductor.

Painting "Louis Andriessen" by Ward Schumaker

During 2009-10, an artist Ward Schumaker made a series of paintings named after different composers. This is the one named after Andriessen.