2023 was the year of women in music. Nowadays we see female conductors, composers, bandleaders and even a spectacular increase in the number of female violinists. The professional music scene, for many centuries the domain of men, is finally changing. If women played an instrument it used to be a harp, but the conductor’s box […]
Music
Fifth Rockit Festival in Groningen
On this very rainy Saturday in November, I ended up at the Rockit Festival at Groningen’s Oosterpoort. The first performance this day came from alto and baritone saxophonist Linda Fredriksson’s surprisingly subtle-sounding Finnish quartet making music based on natural sounds. I hadn’t expected intimate chamber jazz in a hall where people were not able to […]
Apocalypse in Amsterdam
Prophets of doom abound in Amsterdam. However, British composer and conductor James Wood (1953) goes a step further. His oratorio Apokalypsis, based on John’s Revelation, premiered last week at the Amsterdam Muziekgebouw. When seven soprano saxophones blast the tattoo signal in unison from the balconies of the Muziekgebouw, everyone is immediately alert. Not all visitors […]
What makes ‘neoclassical’ music so popular?
What makes ‘neoclassical’ music so popular? Do lovers of kind-meditative piano sounds have no patience for complicated or confrontational passages? Do they regard listening to music not as an adventure but as a refuge? Joep Beving is a good example of a musician who practices the neoclassical style. After the Dutch pianist gave up his […]
Recognition for Alma Mahler’s music
When Alma Schindler (1879 – 1964) married Gustav Mahler (1860 – 1911), he imposed a huge restriction on her: in their marriage would only be room for one composer. It went without saying that he was that one; Gustav did not even bother to consider her work. Elise Caluwaerts is the first singer to record […]
A look back on North Sea Jazz 2023
Friday 7 July The halls in Ahoy may have gotten larger, the crowds have increased more than proportionally. North Sea Jazz is as popular as ever and that means you have to think even more carefully about who you would like to see and hear in order not to end up in front of closed […]