Jellantsje de Vries: “Klaas is not an open book and his music always gave me the feeling that I was getting a glimpse into his inner self”

Violinist Jellantsje de Vries forms a duo with pianist Bobby Mitchell, with whom she will play a chamber music programme in the Paleiskerk on Saturday afternoon. Jellantsje is the daughter of Klaas de Vries.

What does your father’s music mean to you?

“Quite a lot, actually… It comes very close and feels very personal. My father is a sweet, endearing, gentle person, very balanced too. And his music contains a great deal of emotion. Klaas is not an open book and his music always gave me the feeling that I was getting a glimpse into his inner self. I also recognise a lot in it, I have to say, perhaps because I am his daughter.”

How would you characterise Klaas de Vries’ music?

“His work always has a certain theatricality. There is always a dramaturgy, a story, the idea that he wants to say something with it. Perhaps that is because he draws a lot of inspiration from literature and has also written a lot for voice, because of my mother [mezzo-soprano Gerrie de Vries, ed.]. Even with instrumental pieces, such as the new work for the Residentie Orchestra, you get the feeling that there is an extra-musical meaning.”

Have you heard anything of that new orchestral work yet, Cada instante?

She laughs. “I have heard a lot about it! I often speak to my father and he couldn’t help but tell me about it. He found it very exciting to work on it, how far he could go with his idea of ​​a large orchestra without a conductor, like a kind of living, breathing animal. He also asked Gregory Charette [conductor and composer, ed.] to look into it, to test the feasibility from a conductor’s point of view. It’s great to see how passionate Klaas is when he’s sparring like that. In the end, the piece will be conducted, but I understand from Klaas that the original idea remains largely intact.”

You mention Gregory Charette, whose work you are also playing. I honestly didn’t know that he also composed.

“Gregory considers composing almost as something monastic. I have played solos of his in small settings, but this is the first time that his music is heard on a larger stage, indeed. He feels a strong need to compose, he says, but a performance is not the ultimate goal for him: that is the composing itself. Incidentally, it was Klaas’ idea to programme this piece. Gregory wrote it for Klaas in a sense and he thought it absolutely belonged in the programme that Bobby and I will play in the Paleiskerk on Saturday afternoon.”

View the full program, compiled by Klaas de Vries here. Info and tickets.