Theo Bruins Prize
Louis Andriessen
–
Hout
Louis Andriessen
–
Dances
Ensemble Klang / Claron McFadden, soprano / AskolSchönberg / Students of the Royal Conservatoire
29 May is the publication date of Groots is de liefde (‘Love is an excellent thing’), the biography of Louis Andriessen, written by music publicist and guest curator of Festival Dag in de Branding Jacqueline Oskamp. On the day of the Festival, Oskamp presents her book and receives the Theo Bruins Award from The Hague alderwoman Saskia Bruines for her services to Dutch music. Of course she has chosen to hear music by Louis Andriessen, the most influential Dutch composer of our time, who died four years ago.
Ensemble Klang opens the afternoon with the uncompromising Hout (‘Wood’, 1991), with a prominent role for percussionist Joey Marijs on woodblocks and marimba (which, of course, is also an appropriately wooden instrument). Sax, guitar and piano complement the quartet. Andriessen wrote the work for the illustrious Hague collective LOOS. In Andriessen’s own words, Hout is “a strict canon”, but the successive entries are so close together that it sounds more like a “unison melody with branches”.
To conclude the afternoon, five string players from Asko|Schönberg, together with students from the Royal Conservatoire, will play the more modest and varied Dances, also from 1991, for chamber orchestra and soprano. Andriessen originally wrote Dances for the choreography De trap of Bianca van Dillen, which premiered in April 1991 in Frascati in Amsterdam. The music was performed by the then Asko Ensemble and soprano Claron McFadden, who played the role of an Egyptian dancer who chose one of the other dancers to climb the stairs from the title with her. McFadden, for whom Andriessen wrote numerous works, is also the soloist this afternoon. Andriessen used a fragment from the historical novel Winged Pharaoh (1937) by the English writer Joan Grant as text.
The festive award ceremony will take place between Andriessen’s performances. The Theo Bruins Prize is a lifetime achievement award for a person who has made an exceptional contribution to Dutch music. Oskamp is the first publicist to be honoured with the prize and also the first woman. She previously wrote the enthusiastically received books Onder stroom (about electronic music in the Netherlands) and Een behoorlijk kabaal, a cultural history of twentieth-century Dutch music. Of course, Groots is de liefde will be for sale afterwards.
