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Posted 30 November 2016

‘String Quartet Nº 6’ – World première by Arditti Quartet       

     
The WORLD PREMIÈRE of ‘String Quartet Nº 6’ (2014), performed by the world renowned Arditti Quartet, took place at Wigmore Hall in London on the 26th of November 2016.

“In String Quartet No. 6 (which can be seen as a follow up of my String Quartet No. 5) I try to combine an existing theme that I used in the music for the feature film ‘Influence’ (‘Hiszpanka’) with quasi-melodical motives that from time to time accelerate, decelerate and come to a standstill, like a Doppler effect. This combination results in an almost ‘surrealistic’ effect. I sometimes use these different ‘time dimensions’ parallel, other times they follow each other chronologically, but in any case the listener experiences different feelings of time.”

‘String Quartet Nº 6’ was commissioned by Wigmore Hall (London) and De Doelen (Rotterdam). Listen to String Quartet Nº 6 here. 

Posted 20 November 2016

Opera ‘The Mother of Black-Winged Dreams’ – Dutch Première       

     
The DUTCH PREMIÈRE of the opera The Mother of Black-Winged Dreams (libretto by Paul Goodman) took place at the Zwitsal Fabriek in Apeldoorn on 6 August 2016, 20 years after its highly succesful world première during the Munich Biennale. Musicians from the National Youth Orchestra (conducted by Clark Rundell) and singers from the Dutch National Opera Academy gave five stunning performances. The opera was directed by Javier López Piñón, on which occasion he colaborated with Rieks Swarte (stage design), Alex Brok (lighting design) and Sacha Zwiers (stage clothes).

Music critics were divided about the reality and relevance of the subject, but specialists from the field of Dissociative Identity Disorder (previously known as ‘split personality’) were unanimously impressed with the opera's realistic approach.

“One of the great modern pieces”. Thea Derks, musicologist 

Posted 26 June 2016

‘Viola Concerto No. 1’ – Musique surrealistique