Reviews

Reviews: Nederlandse Muziekdagen

11.11.2008

From het Parool:
“ The Nederlandse Muziekdagen are the replacement for the Gala van de Nederlandse Muziek, which gave up the ghost in 1987, leaving behind it a void. The muziekdagen have now taken place sixteen times in Vredenburg in Utrecht, during the month of December, in recent years with a different programmer on each occasion, all of them making a strictly personal, and therefore exciting, selection from the butter mountain of Dutch music.” [...]
“2008 saw a change of course, packed with lofty ideals. The Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ is now the location, and composer and poet Micha Hamel has been appointed artistic director for four years, guaranteeing continuity of vision. Which is a good thing.” [...]
”Whether the music of Jan Vriend, the composer given most exposure during the 17th edition, will ever reach the status of the ‘urgent art form’ which Hamel has said he aims to promote, remains to be seen. His works for a cappella choir, given a fine performance yesterday afternoon by the Nederlands Kamerkoor conducted by Klaas Stok, are admittedly very pleasant to listen to, warm-blooded and inventive, but his instrumental pieces, such as In Paradisum (performed by the Asko/Schönberg Ensemble conducted by Hans Leenders) get bogged down in a ponderous ‘70s idiom.
No, then I’d rather have the 40-part In Ecclesiis by Daan Manneke, for big band, split up into eight groups arranged spatially, which yesterday transformed the Atrium into one great sublimely vibrating sound body. Or Calliope Tsoupaki’s Edem for choir and ensemble, mellifluous, though at times leaning too much towards the world of Giya Kancheli.
But if the bridge to a rather larger listening public is ever to be built, Tsoupaki’s music has a greater chance of survival than Jan Vriend’s.” [...] “There’s one thing you have to give Micha Hamel: we are already curious about the eighteenth edition of the Nederlandse Muziekdagen.”

From Trouw:
”The opening of the final afternoon of the Muziekdagen could not have been more Dutch, with the Nederlands Kamerkoor and the Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble presenting compositions by Jan Vriend. Programmer Micha Hamel devoted a lot of attention to this composer, (who was to turn seventy the next day). This was only right, since, however much the choral and orchestral works represented differed, they were convincing in their professional approach.
But nonetheless someone else stole the show on Sunday afternoon. In ‘Edem’ for choir and ensemble one could hear that the route Calliope Tsoupaki has mapped out for herself towards a lyrical language of her own is slowly but surely beginning to take clearer shape. At times it gave rise to a beauty of sound which caught you unawares, and which testified to a fresh young authenticity.” [...]