Naar Nederlands 
NEWSLETTER
NEWSLETTER NR. 11 JANUARY - JULY 2006
One can imagine a less attractive place to start the new year musically than the 'Concertgebouw' in Amsterdam. On January 7 I'm playing there for the live radio broadcast on 'Radio 4', the national radionetwork for classical music. Hans van den Boom, the host of the program, interviews me on Mompou's M徭ica Callada and I play the first five movements of the cycle. Five days later I play M徭ica Callada in the Province House in the city of Haarlem.
Our first tour abroad brings Eleonore and me to the Baltic States. We play in Riga (Latvia) first, in the Jewish Community Centre, then in Tallin (Estonia) at the National Library (on Jom Hasjoah, the international memorial day of the Holocaust) and in Vilnius (Lithunia), in the building of the 'Jewish Community of Lithunia'.
Our program here is Music from the time of Anne Frank with works by dutch, jewish composers from the interbellum (Leo Smit, Rosy Wertheim, Dick Kattenburg, Bob Hanf, Nico Richter and Ignace Lili創). In all of these three countries there has been a considerable jewish community before the Second World War. In Vilnius we meet many people after the concert who are still speaking jiddish. Anyway they must have understood the yiddish text I had been singing in Jeff Hamburgs' Uncle Mendel Ukra貧ean Blues. On February 1 I'm the guest, for an hour, in the Radioprogram Kunststof. With Petra Possel, the programs host, I'm talking mainly on Mompou and I illustrate some things at the piano in the studio as well. Afterwards I receive a lot of positive reactions and I feel happy that so many new people seem to have been convinced of the beauty of Mompouﾕs music.
Three days later Eleonore play our 6 Continents Project in de Burcht in Leiden. There is an exhibition of childrens drawings, put together by Cara Boerwinkel, during the concert with drawings from a.o. Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka. The concert has been announced as a family concert and there are quite some children in the audience. It makes us eager to play more of this kind of concerts specifically aimed at young people. Composer Joseph Landers (USA), whose piece, which he composed for us, we play at this concert is also there. He happened to be in London and came over for the concert.
On February 6 I play a lunchconcert with violinist Ursula Schoch at the Thomaschurch in Amsterdam. Our program is Jazzinfluences in the 20th-century music for violin and piano, a musically and also physically very rewarding program to play.
Dutch publishing house Donemus has published a considerable number of blues from my bluesproject in two albums on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of this project. In the chamber music hall of Vredenburg, Music Centre in Utrecht, the albums are being presented with a short concert during the yearly Days of Dutch Music. The Attacca Label has released the 32 works on a double CD at the same time. Marian van Dijk, director of Donemus, introduces the albums and the presentation with a short speech and offers the albums and CD to the composers who are present.
Private concerts often have this intimate atmosphere and close contact with the audience. This was also the case in the Kunsthuis (Arthouse) in Rosmalen, at the same time home of the paintress Cecile Potjes. I play a number of Preludes by Mompou and his complete M徭ica Callada.
In Amstelveen a week later, at the Griffioen Theatre, Eleonore and I play at the Dutch Flute Festival. We play works from our 6 Continents Project and do a workshop for flutists about modern playing techniques that are used in these contemporary pieces. Hetty van der Linden, a well known dutch painter, some years ago founded Paint a Future. Children, mainly from developing countries, paint their dreams about the future, professional artists from over 40 countries use these drawings in their own works and in this way work out these childrens dreams free of charge. With the benefits of the sale of these paintings many dreams can be realized.
Since March 11, 2007, there is also Rent a Future in Amsterdam, where these paintings can be rented or purchased. On that day the gallery of Rent a Future is inaugurated. There are many musical contributions. I play a morningconcert with music, related to children: Schumanns Kinderszenen, Debussy's Childrens Corner and Mompou's Sc熟es d'enfants. In the afternoon I accompany Cuban singer Estrella Acosta in Cuban and Brazilian songs.
On March 17 Ursula Schoch and I give two concerts on the same day. First we perform at a lunchconcert in 's Hertogenbosch at the 'Azijnfabriek' (= vinegar factory!) with works by Mozart, Poulenc, Korngold, Grosz and Copland. After the concert we drive to beautiful Wittem, in Limburg, the most southern province of the Netherlands. In the evening we play an extended version of our program at the library of the local monastery. It's a pity to leave Wittem after the concert, this region of Holland is so scenic!
On March 18 Irene Maessen (soprano), Marijke van Kooten (violin), Dani鼠 Esser (cello) and I perform at the BIMHUIS in Amsterdam. We have been invited for the television program ﾔVrije Geluidenﾕ (free sounds), where we play music by Mompou. Hans Flupsen, host of this show, has an interview with me about Mompou. The impact of television turns out to be wide ranging once again, especially compared to radio. That day my website has a record number of visitors!
A week later I play the complete M徭ica Callada again, this time in the Baptist Church in Middelburg. It's a beautiful church with warm acoustics, where Mompou's music can have the large breath it needs. On March 27 I play at the Netherlands Embassy in Stockholm. The concert with New Blues for Piano and Tangos is at the same time the inauguration of the new grand piano in a hall that used to be the place where the dutch community of Stockholm held its religious services. When youre living in Amsterdam, like me, it's easy to feel at home in Stockholm, the mentality and environment of both cities being quite similar. It's only a pity that restaurant are closing here that early. Dining after the concert is not an easy thing!
In her house along one of the canals of Amsterdam pianist Marja Bon runs her Muzieksaeltje (archaic dutch for little concert hall). Here she is organizing concerts and workshops. With violaplayer Prunella Pacey I give a workshop, on the last day of March, for ensembles, organized by the Leo Smit Foundation in the framework of the Leo Smit Festival, that will take place in june. A number of the ensembles, that we coach here, will perform at this Festival as well. We work on repertoire with music by Leo Smit and his contemporaries.
On April 5 we play our Mompou chamber music program for the first time. In the Oosterpoort in Groningen we commemorate the 20th anniversary of Mompouﾕs death with Irene Maessen (soprano), Marijke van Kooten (violin), Larissa Groeneveld (violoncello) and Martin Kaay (guitar) and musicologist and music journalist Frits van der Waa does the pre-concert talk. There is a surprisingly high number of visitors voor a weekday concert. Fortunately Mompouﾕs music attracts an audience once more.
In Delft Eleonore and I play in the Synagoge on April 8. On the program are works by dutch, jewish composers, a.o. Leo Smit, Dick Kattenburg and Rosy Wertheim. The next week I play in the familiar atmosphere of the Uilenburg Synagoge in Amsterdam. With saxophone player Arno Bornekamp I play works by Lex van Delden (Sonatina for alto-saxophone and piano), Darius Milhaud (Scaramouche for alto-saxophone and piano), Manuel Rosenthal (Saxophon Marmelade) and Leo Samama (Capriccio for alto-saxophone and piano). It's an energetic program and especially the Manuel Rosenthal piece - Rosenthal was Ravels onliest student - turns out to be a revelation.
In the Bethani創monastery in Amsterdam we present our new CD Federico Mompou - Chamber Music on April 28. The first copy I give to Mark Doorn, manager and artistic director of this hall in the middle of Amsterdam red light district. It's a nice place to make recordings, you feel the history here and you can continue recording as late as you want.
In Vredenburg, Music Centre in Utrecht, we play our Mompou chamber music program. Once more we have a large crowd. A week ago Carmen Bravo, Mompou's widow, passed away in Barcelona and we dedicate the concert to her. The last regular concert in the Uilenburg Synagogue, organized as always by the Leo Smit Foundation, takes place on May 14. Irene Maessen (soprano), Eleonore Pameijer (flute), Marijke van Kooten and Jacobien Rozemond (violin), Asdis Valdemarsdottir (viola), Sebastian Koloski (cello) and myself play works by a.o. Gilberto Mendes (Seul un Urubu solitaire, Dutch premier), Leo Smit (Little Prelude by Ravel for soprano and piano), Gideon Klein (Sonata for piano), Vitezlava Kapralova (Leden for soprano, flute, 2 violins, cello and piano). Especially the music of the Czech composer Kaprolova is moving. The Kapralova Society informed me before the concert that our performance would be the European premier of the work.
By the end of May I visit Peer Publishers in Hamburg. This publishing house is interested in publishing two albums with blues from my bluesproject. I play those blues which have not been recorded on CD yet to enable the director and his assistant to get an impression of the repertory. Peer Music will try to have the two albums ready for the big music fair in Frankfurt in March 2008.
June begins with a try-out concert in Marja Bons Muzieksaeltje: we play a chamber music program featuring dutch composer Jacques Beers, whose music we will record on a double CD later that month. It's hard to understand why this special music with a so specific handwriting is hardly known. Irene Maessen (soprano), Marcel Beekman (tenor), Eleonore Pameijer (flute), Ursula Schoch (violin) and Marja Bon en me (piano) have invested a lot of time and energy in the music of Jacques Beers, supported by Donemus publishing house - where a number of works have been set on computer which facilitates their legibility- and by Beers' son, viola player Arno Beers, who knows his fathers music like nobody else. In three days we record the program: a considerable number of songs, the Suite for flute and piano, the Sonata for violin and piano, works for piano solo and for four hand piano. The double CD is due to be released in the beginning of 2008.
On June 6 I play Mompou's M徭ica Callada at the Instituto Cervantes in Utrecht. Preceding the concert Spanish poet Clara Jan市 gives a lecture on Mompou. Until now she is the onliest biographer of the composer. In the weekend of June 8,9 and 10 there is the Leo Smit Festival in the Uilenburg Synagoge in Amsterdam, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Leo Smit Foundation (www.leosmit.nl). We start with two short concerts for childeren of schools in the area of the Synagoge, the former jewish quarter of Amsterdam, playing works by Bosmans, Kattenburg, Lili創, Smit and Wertheim. In the evening there is a concert with Irene Maessen (soprano), Eleonore Pameijer (flute) and Marijke van Kooten (violin). During the concert there is also the presentation of a special jubilee edition, Wat bleef was hun muziek (only their music survived), in which 12 jewish composers from Amsterdam have being portrayed, whose music has played an important role at the many concert, organized by the Leo Smit Foundation during the past ten years. Eleonore and I have contributed to the book as well, The next evening baryton Jasper Schweppe gives a beautiful, ironical interpretation of Bob Hanfs Kafkasongs. With pianist Marianne Boer I play some works for piano four hands at the final concert on sunday afternoon, among which the world premier of two Waltzes by Dick Kattenburg.
On the first day of the summer I play again in Barcelona at the Academia Granados -Marshall.Itﾕs a concert commemorating not anly the 20th anniversary of Mompou's death but at the same time the death of his wisow, pianist Carmen Bravo. I feel grateful that I still could have had some very useful lessons by her. During my stay in Barcelona I look actively (and find it as well) for music by Joaquin Nin-Culmell, whose music I hope to perform next year. His music has a lot of spanish and cuban influences and could be soon as a more earthly and rough version of Mompouﾕs music.
My last musical trip before the summer holidays leads me to Worms, in Germany. My remote ancestors come from this provincial town, which has a very rich jewish history. And now I play there the closing concert of the jewish days of culture. The program is Jazzfever: jewish composers and Jazz with works by Wi始er, Gershwin, Bernstein, Gould, Milhaud, Tansman, Schulhoff, Smit and Rodgers (My funny Valentine!).
Documentary maker Pamela Sturhoofd accompanies me on behalf of the jewish broadcasting corporation. With her I visit the city archives and the jewish cemetery (the oldest in Europe, with tombstones going back as far as 1040). The radiobroadcast will probably be in august 2007 and will be announced at www.joodseomroep.nl