Visions

In Visions, singer and curator Elaine Mitchener brings together works by composers who channel the mystical, the political and the deeply personal. From Gubaidulina’s radiant arrangements of Hildegard von Bingen’s visions to Sciarrino’s ecstatic Infinito Nero. Sebastiaan Kemner – trombonist and guest curator of the 78th edition of Dag in de Branding – adds a different perspective, with two works that explore the boundaries of his instrument in very different ways.

In Luciano Berio’s famous Sequenza V, the trombone becomes much more than just an instrument. Berio wrote the work for trombonist Stuart Dempster and was inspired by the legendary clown Grock. Halfway through, the performer suddenly asks out loud: “Why?” A question as simple as it is unsettling, in which humour, wonder and existential doubt come together. With singing, speech, extreme dynamic contrasts and theatrical elements, Berio creates a virtuosic solo portrait in which the trombonist simultaneously becomes musician, voice and dramatic personality.

In Echoes from behind, a new trombone concerto by Martijn Padding, Sebastiaan Kemner himself also takes centre stage. Padding wrote the work for him as a portrait in sound and gives the trombone an unusual transformation for the occasion. The quarter valve is replaced by a tube with a trumpet bell and mute, allowing Kemner to play through two different bells and switch rapidly between them. This creates a surprising dialogue for a single player between ‘front sound’ and ‘back sound’ – a play with sound, space and identity from which Echoes from behind takes its title.

Together with the New European Ensemble, Mitchener and Kemner thus move between the visionary and the theatrical, between voice and instrument, and between inner experience and outward expression.