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NEWSLETTER
NEWSLETTER NR. 10 AUGUST - DECEMBER 2006
It has become almost a tradition for me to start the new musical season with a performance at the Amsterdam UITMARKT, the opening manifestation of the new cultural season of the dutch capital. This time violinist Ursula Schoch is joining me and we play in the Stopera, the building hosting both the Opera and the townhall. Our program is made up of jazzinfluenced pieces for violin and piano by Erwin Schullhoff, Aaron Copland and Wilhelm Grosz. The piano is too small, the acoustics too dry but fortunately the audience is numerous and concentrated.
For my concert at the Amsterdam BIMHuis (the foremost jazzstage) on September 11, American composer Allan Segal, now living in Amsterdam, has written a blues, which will be premiered exactly 5 years after the attacks on the New York twin towers. In his piece Allen expresses his feelings about the aftermath of the events and its consequences for American society. The evening before the concerts we’re both invited to talk about the upcoming event for the radio program ‘Met het Oog op Morgen’ (with an eye on tomorrow).
At the concert I play a program ‘Ten Years of New Blues for Piano’, a selection from my bluesrepertory from the past decade with premieres of pieces by Svitlana Azarova (Ukraine), Evrim Demirel (Turkey), Mathieu Polak (the Netherlands) and Allan Segal (USA).
On October 8 the exhibition ‘Avec plaisir’ is being opened at the Stedelijk Museum (municipal Museum of Modern Art) in 's Hertogenbosch, with ceramics by Picasso.The musical part of the opening event is taken care of by soprano Lenneke Ruiten, who performs songs by Poulenc in a very refined way and by me. I play 2 Andalusian Danses byTurina as a warming-up for a concert I’ll give in December in the framework of this Picasso exhibition.
The day before the concert I turned 55 and I feel encouraged by the incredible tirelessness and youthfull frankness of Picasso’s art.
October 16 is the start of a new series of concerts at the Uilenburger Synagogue in Amsterdam, organised by the Leo Smit Foundation. With Irene Maessen (soprano), Eleonore Pameijer (flute) and Daniël Esser (violincello) I play in works by Erich Zeisl (songs, sonata for violincello and piano), Daniël Belinfante (third Sonatina for piano), Michael Fiday (9 Haikus, first complete performance), John Borstlap (Tagoresongs for soprano, flute and piano, first performance) and Maurice Ravel (Chansons Madécasses). Zeisl in particular really is a discovery! In Michael Fiday’s Haikus the pianist has to do quite some preparation of the piano as well as playing in the strings. Fortunately I manage to do all the required actions in a satisfactory manner.
In the framework of the Mozart Year pianist Jasper Bon has planned a large series of all-Mozart pianoconcerts. With my colleague Paul Prenen I’ll do three recitals with works for piano two hands and at the end one four hand work, the first one on November 5.
In 't Witte Kerkje (the little white church) in Bussum we play amongst other things the Sonata in C major K.V. 330, the Rondo in a minor K.V.511, the Adagio in b minor K.V. 540, the Sonata KV Anh. 186 and the Variations in G major KV 501 for piano four hands.
It’s rewarding to play Mozart again in a life performance. Moreover this program has forced me to study very thoroughly and precisely and I expect this will be of great help for me as well for future programs.
With Ursula I also play Mozart in Art Gallery de Ossenberg, near the city of Middelburg, on November 12. We play a combined program of classical works and jazzinspired repertoire: Mozart and Poulenc find themselves in the company of Korngold, Grosz (Jazzband), Gruenberg (Jazzettes) and Copland (Ukelele Serenade). Addy Nieuwenhuize is managing this Art Gallery, which she is using as a concertstage regularly without receiving any sponsoring. I think musicians should be very grateful to people like Addy in times where governemental support for the performing arts is going down all the time.
At the Kapel (Chapell) in Hilversum and at the Hilt in Eemnes Paul Prenen and I are playing our second (in the afternoon) and third (in the evening) all-Mozart recital on November 25. The number of visitors is disappointing and this is proving once more the importance of a good publicity campaign. On the other hand such concerts have a special character: in the intimate atmosphere one recognizes all the faces in the audience by the time the concert is over.
On November 27 Eleonore and I leave for the Ukraine. We intend to perform our program with music by dutch, jewish composers in as many East-European countries as possible as there has been a flourishing jewish community before World War II.
In Kiev, Odessa and Lvov we present an all-dutch program. A special detail is the fact that Ignace Liliën, whose ‘Divertimento’ is on our program, was born in Lvov, named Lemberg by that time as it was part of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. Furthermore we play works by Leo Smit, Rosy Wertheim, Nico Richter, Dick Kattenburg and Bob Hanf. In Kiev we play at the Philharmony, in Odessa at the Stolyarsky Special Music School, a Music Academy for very talented children and in Lvov at the Lvov Music College. The concerts are received well and particularly in Lvov we have a very young audience.
We travel between the various cities by nighttrain. The trains have still this historical character and we feel very much like tasting in the pre-war Middle-European atmosphere, especially in Lvov. The generously painted antisemitic slogans on the walls of the remnants of the jewish ghetto unfortunately do fit very well in this picture.
The day after my return from the Ukraine I play Mozarts concerto for piano and orchestra in F major KV 413 in Bussum. It’s one of the 11 Mozart pianoconcertos Mozart, which will be performed by an ad hoc Festival Orchestra , conducted by Melvin. The sparse notes in the slow movement are supported by the orchestra in such a comfortable way that they seem to float...
On December 10 I return to the ‘Stedelijk Museum’ in ‘s Hertogenbosch. In the framework of the Picasso exhibition 'Avec plaisir' I play works by Granados, de Falla, Satie, Stravinsky and Milhaud. The Museum has rented a fantastic Bösendorfer grand piano for this occasion but unfortunately it turnes out once more that musea often lack the experience of making good publicity for a concert.
The next day I play again at the Uilenburg Synagogue in Amsterdam. Tatiana Koleva proves to be a marvellous percussionst in works by Sinta Wullur and Ana Mihaljovic. With Ursula I play works by Louis Gruenberg (Jazzettes for violin and piano) Alexandre Tansman (Sonatine transatlantique for violin and piano) and Agnes Jama (Suite for violin and piano). Agnes Jama is the mother of jazz-singer Soesja Citroen. Her ‘Song for Ma’ has as an Intro of some bars from Jama’s Sonata for cello and piano (now being played by Ursula on the violin). I accompany Soesja in this declaration of love to her mother and in three other songs, written by herself. Soesja has just heard her mothers work after a very long time and she is really moved by that. We can notice that from her passionate interpretation of her songs.
On December 14 I play a Tangoprogram at the Academia Marshall-Granados in Barcelona with works by a.o. Piazzolla, Salgan, Dolf de Kinkelder, Turina, Albeniz and Wiéner. It’s a location full of history. The Academy was founded by Granados in 1901 and since then many famous Spanish pianists, like Alicia de Larrocha, have been trained here. The antique hall is crowded and the audience is reacting very warm-blooded. My day has been succesfull anyway as in the morning I found two unpublished Preludes for piano by Mompou, whose music I adore, at the library of the Academy.
Late at night I still have dinner in Restaurant ‘Salamanca’ near the sea and unfortunately I have to get up very early the next morning. In the afternoon they expect me in the Hague for an other Tangoconcert. Gepke Witteveen and Jaap Broekmans turn their cosy and artistic house into a concerthall every month (their series is called ‘Première Parterre’) and also this time it is proven that private concertorganizers often can mobilize a bigger crowd than many of the venues that receive financial support.This concert really was worth the early rising in my Barcelona hotel room.
I still remain in a Spanish atmpsphere: on December 16 I present my new cd with ‘Música Callada’ by Federico Mompou at the Amsterdam ‘Bethaniënklooster’, an old monastery in the heart of the old city. I perform works by Federico Mompou (a.o. the first two of the four books of ‘Música Callada’) and I introduce the new cd of 'Música Callada' that I recorded here last summer. The first copy I offer to dutch writer Henk Bernlef. Bernlef has prepared an impressive speech on the introspective, almost casually composed music of this rather unknown Catalan composer.
Two days later I play the complete Música Callada at the Technical University Twente in the city of Enschede and I make extensive citations from Bernlefs words. Notwithstanding the rather modern character of the program the concert is attented by many people who really appreciate the music (in this series of lunchtime concerts the audience can give a mark for the concert every time). The fact that Mompou’s music is received here that well (even in this part of the country which is at quite a distance from the cultural centres of Amsterdam and Rotterdam) is a hopefull sign for me with the Mompou jubilee year (2007) and many Mompou concerts to come, in mind.