Reviews

Review: Raskatov and Birtwistle

09.10.2008

“Requiem for contemporary music?”

“The battle against the subsidy decisions is still raging. And indeed a request was made for support from the audience for the Asko/Schönberg and the Nederlands Kamerkoor at the concert with which together they opened the Amsterdam Concertgebouw’s Tijdgenoten (Contemporaries) series.[...]

The Russian composer Alexsandr Raskatov was present in person to give some background about his work The last freedom (2001). [...] His unconventional requiem is based on Slavic, Latin and Hebrew texts and lines of poetry by Dmitri Prigov. [...] During the course of the piece the influence of compatriots such as Moussorgsky and Stravinsky can be heard, but also of Carl Orff. Shocking bangs from the brass and glockenspiel break up the atmosphere of catastrophe created by sighing and sweeping strings, in order to introduce an even more threatening episode. The ensemble conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw underpinned the text in a stylishly restrained tone.

In Neruda Madrigales (2005) by Harrison Birtwistle, a work commissioned by the Nederlands Kamerkoor and the Schönberg Ensemble, among others, it was the ecstatically played instrumental accompaniment that gave support to the words. The high range within which the choir and woodwind operate occasionally received a little prod from the stimulating sound of cymbals.[...]
The Asko/Schönberg and the Nederlands Kamerkoor argued enthusiastically for the works on the programme, and defended their own future with total conviction.”

Frederike Berntsen in De Telegraaf of 19 September 2008

“There was a charged atmosphere at the opening of the ASKO/Schönberg’s Tijdgenoten (Contemporaries) series in the Concertgebouw. This famed and successful concert series will probably be the first thing to perish as a result of the recently announced subsidy cuts, it was announced at the beginning.
The Nederlands Kamerkoor, which, as on numerous previous occasions, was sharing the stage, is itself under threat of closure for identical reasons.
And yet this occasion was one of intense and dedicated music-making, and served as proof of the right to exist of both the concert series and the performers. [...]
“The Nederlands Kamerkoor was impressive in the very effective choral sections, but also as indivuduals, for instance in the references to Russian Orthodox precentors which suddenly crop up.

Jochem Valkenberg in the NRC Handelsblad of 17 September 2008