Modern composers in particular are sometimes blamed for their music being too abstract or avant-garde. In their concert Roots & Grooves, the Asko|Schönberg ensemble exposes the inspiration of modern and contemporary composers – which is often surprisingly concrete and close to home.
For Leoš Janáček, the only living composer on the program, these were Moravian folk songs that he collected in his home country of the Czech Republic and recorded for voice and piano. In the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Asko|Schönberg played them on Thursday evening in an arrangement by the Belgian composer Tim Mulleman (1993). He arranged a selection of Janáček songs with themes such as farewell and love fidelity into a light-hearted suite for soprano Katrien Baerts and a five-piece ensemble. Mulleman retained the vocal lines, but applied alternative playing techniques in the accompaniment, such as a flutist who has to play two notes at the same time. The songs often flowed into each other, if only with the silken thread of that whisper-soft flute.
How folk music can sound through the filter of personal memories and imagination could be heard in Gougalōn: Scenes from a Street Theatre by composer Unsuk Chin (1961). During a visit to China, the busy street life in the metropolises brought back memories of her childhood in Seoul.
Without trying to express those popular street sounds directly, the music forces all kinds of images on you: string tones skim restlessly past each other, percussionists ping-pong motifs together on empty cans and glass bottles, and you hear slapstick-like sound effects such as a muted trombone sounding. like a deflating balloon. Everything effectively depicts the hustle and bustle of a chaotic metropolis.
Physical play
Asko|Schönberg's tight and fiery interpretation was not only fascinating to listen to, but also to see: the highly physical playing of the violins, the hard blows with which double bassist Jordi Carrasco Hjelm struck his flat hand on the strings, percussionists who almost had to run between their dozens of instruments to make every bet.
The connection with the commissioned work of Thomas van Dun (1995), Rocailles de l'après-vie…, turned out well, despite the completely different sound world. Van Dun takes as his starting point the feeling of not belonging anywhere. “The question I asked myself for this piece is: how can you express the fact that you never really land anywhere?” he told in October NRCjust before the premiere of the work in the NTR Saturday Matinee. On Thursday it sounded like a subliminal reflection on the individualistic hustle and bustle Gougalōn. In slow, broadly drawn lines that suggested a larger cast than was actually on stage, conductor Clark Rundell built up a tension that became increasingly uncanny. Only with the menacing timpani blows did you become aware of how far the music had drifted from its starting point.
One-time
In the final part Gnarly Buttons the roots of composer John Adams (1947) were clearly audible: minimal music and American jazz. The repetitive opening melody was given a rushing, gritty effect in the Music Building because solo clarinetist David Kweksilber blew it with extra air. The increasingly virtuosic and rhythmic clarinet solos only calmed down again in the third movement, which almost felt like a melancholic pop song about repeated piano chords whose simple orchestration contrasted with the condensed works of Chin and Van Dun.
By making clever inspirational connections, Asko|Schönberg managed to connect five composers of very different signatures. It's a terrible shame that the concert was only a one-off.
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