Naar Nederlands 
Newsletter 4: July - December 2003
My summer holidays started with a trip to Lisbon. My main goal was to visit the city and to hear as much fado as possible. This turned out to be easier than I expected. I was particularly impressed by the waitress who, right after she had shown me my table in the open air restaurant on a little square in the Alfama Quarter, transformed herself in a fadosinger. From the doorstep of the restaurant she managed even, while singing, to direct newcomers to their seats. Between times I met 3 composers: Joost Kleppe, a dutch composer who lost his heart to Lisbon and whose piece 'Memento' I was about to play and 2 Portugese composers who had promised me a new piece for the International Festival of Aveiro in 2004. Daniël Schvetz I met in the marvellous cafe Nicola where we may have been seated at the very same table where the Portugese writer Pessoa used to drink his 'bica' (espresso). To meet Sara Carvalho I travelled by train to Aveiro, a cosy, provincial town where I'l play on March 23 at the Festival where Sara will be the artistic director.
After the holidays the new season started with a performance of a series of tangos at the Amsterdam 'UITmarkt', the traditional opening of the cultural season in Amsterdam. Soon after I left for Cuba, a trip which had costed me a lot of preparation. Not many dutch musicians visited Cuba sofar. I was invited by the Cuban League of Artists UNEAC and the idea of a tour which had been organized by a governemental organization didn't please me too much. But I have to admit that my connections were very pleasant to be around with and I felt free to walk around and to talk to everyone I met. I had the feeling that Cubans would like the tango and blues as both musical forms have a multitude of cultural roots, just like the son, the Cuban national music. I played four concerts, one in Matanzas, one in Pinar del Rio and two in Havanna. A new piece by Cuban composer Roberto Valera was premiered, Van Goghs Blues Ear, and people appreciated that, just as they liked the fact that a number of Cuban dances by Ignacio Cervantes were on the program of a european pianist. Apart from the concerts (three with my Blues and Tango program and one concert with fantastic Cuban jazzmusicians in 'la Zorra y el Cuervo', the 'house of Cuban jazz' in Havanna) I did a lecture, a jam session with jazz musicians and a series of interviews and press conferences. Political questions were also discussed there and although I disagree on many issues with my Cuban partners, especially those concerning the human rights situation on Cuba, I appreciated very much their willingness to discuss matters with me. My Cuban trip was very impressive and I have a lot of experiences to tell you. You are always welcome to send me a mail if you are curious about Cuba or if you happened to visit Cuba yourself and you might like to exchange experiences.
Shortly after my return I premiered my new program '4 Composers and their national music' in Art Gallery 'de Osseberg' near the city of Middelburg in the extreme southwest of Holland. Gallery owner Addy van Nieuwenhuijzen is open for any program and always promotes it enthusiastically. This attitude could really serve as an example for many subsidized venues where programs are often rather predictable! I had chosen composers coming from the 4 points of the compass: in the music of Schubert (west), Janácek (east), Grieg (north) and Mompou (south) the influences of folk music are evident. This lends a very authentic character to their music.
However in this era of globalization the cultural roots of the composers can often not be heard clearly. Because of this musical globalisation the cultural diversity is in danger. This dilemma of globalization versus cultural diversity is the main issue in the new '6 Continents Project' which flutist Eleonore Pameijer and me have been preparing for over a year before starting to perform it. For this project we asked composers from six continents (Europe, North and South America, Africa, Asia and Australia) to compose a work for flute and piano including elements that the composer considers essential to his or her culture in the broadest sense. One may consider him or herself culturally part of a region, a country, or even, for instance, part of a broader European or African culture. The composers has been asked to consider their own cultural identity and how that relates to the environment and the time in which we live. Consequently, the composer wil be asked to give shape to this 'monologue intérieur' in a composition. Actual information about our project you can find elsewhere on this site.
On October 25 the first round of our project has its premier in the Royal Insitute for the Tropics in close coöperation with Music Centre 'de IJsbreker' (the Ice breaker). The Icebreaker has adopted the entire project, which will have 4 differents rounds with 4 new compositions every time. Radio station the 'Concertzender' has registered the concert (broadcast is scheduled for January 9, 2004) and will register the 3 future programs as well. Three of the four composers who were commissioned a new work were present at the concert: Bob Zimmermanm, David Dramm en Jalalu Kalvert Nelson. Alon Nechushtan was not able to come over from New York but nonetheless was present 'semi-live' on a webcam - a positive aspect of globalisation indeed! Jalalu played also a beautiful improvisation on the trumpet and David sung his 'Hello Pop-Tart', in which Eleonore, Jalalu, Bob and me formed a 'kazoo choir' in the background. The program was repeated in november and december in de Bilt, in the 'Wereldmuseum' (World Museum) in Rotterdam and in the beautiful and acoustically pleasant 'Vishal' (Fish hall) in Haarlem. The venues in Rotterdam and Haarlem adopted our project and will receive us again in 2004 and 2005. The organisation of this project gave us a lot of work, not in the least because of the many applications for financial support. The result however has satisfied us sofar and I enjoy, after a period with almost exclusively soloperformances, to coöperate with a passionate colleague as Eleonore.
On November 9 I played my Tango program in 'Kunsthuis 13' (Arthouse 13) in Velp. I always like playing in the concerthall of this museum which has a respectable collection of Cobrapaintings. The audience here is interested in many different kinds of music and the atmosphere is usually pleasantly informal.
On November 30 I left for Indonesia. The Dutch Embassy and the Dutch Cultural Centre 'Erasmushuis' had invited me to come over and play in Surabaya, Semarang, Yogyakarta and Jakarta. Sometimes the pianos were not too good and notwithstanding the airco my shirts soon became soaked but this was compensated by the enthusiasm of the audiences which could visit the concerts for free. In Surabaya I gave a masterclass. I'm always amazed that in non-western countries students play mainly western repertory, coming from a culture which is alien to them. They may not always express the right character of the music but still I admire their capacity to assimilate this music. Nonetheless I feel sorry that their own national culture seems to be neglected too much by them. Indonesia is rather westernized. In a karaokebar in Jakarta I heard all the youngsters sing along with the great western hits of the seventies and eighties and my Indonesian host assured me that most of them are not very familiar with the Indonesian gamelanmusic. The Indonesian composer Sapto Raharjo on the other hand used the gamelanmusic as a startingpoint for his 'Malioboro blues' which he composed for me. I tried to play the ketipung and the saron (instruments of the gamelanorchestra) myself in this piece in those parts in which my left hand was free. In Yogyakarta Sapto himself was present and we performed his piece together. As in Cuba the audience appreciated that an Indonesian piece was on the program and Sapto received a warm applause.
In Semarang I gave a lecture about my program and did a little jamsession with a bassplayer and a percussionist. Sometimes, like here, I feel the cultural gap (different language, different musical background) is not easy to bridge. I wonder how this music, so new to most indonesian ears, must sound when people hear it for the first time. It's amazing on the other hand when after the lecture one student start talking to me enthusiastically about Janacek operas and Schoenbergs chamber music.
During the Dutch Music Days in Music Centre Vredenburg in Utrecht I participated in a piano marathon on December 14 with pianists Frank van Bommel, Guus Janssen and Kees Wieringa. The idea of Willem Breuker, who was responsable for the program of this yearly 3-days lasting event, was that two classicaly trained pianists (Kees and me) would play dutch, composed music while 2 improvising pianists (Guus and Frank) would give a musical comment on the works. Interruptions were allowed. Allthough I was sceptical about the idea of 'intruding' in someone's music, our joint performance proved to be satisfactory. It turned out that the classical pianists on their turn also reacted to the improvisers and the result was, in the words of music critic Frits van der Waa from the newspaper 'de Volkskrant': "a pleasantly disrespectful piano marathon". He ends his review as follows: "It's a somewhat disorderly but cheerful performance which pre-eminently reflects what matters to Willem Breuker: that music is a human work."