Arnold Schönberg is dead, long live Arnold Schönberg!

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) is often accused of having chased away the audience with his zest for innovation. His twelve-tone technique broke away the foundation underneath the tonal system, which had provided a safe haven for centuries. Deprived of his footing the listener supposedly turned his back on contemporary music. Nonsense, because not only did Schoenberg write several fantastic works, but he continues to inspire composers to date.

Impending horrors

On Thursday 18th May, Asko|Schoenberg honours him with a concert around his Chamber Symphony No. 1. Schoenberg composed this ground-breaking piece in 1906, and it’s a key work of modern music. In it, he summed up the possibilities of classical tonality before leaving it behind forever. Moreover the line-up of ten winds and five strings – a pocket-sized symphony orchestra – laid the foundation for a thriving ensemble-culture. With its length of 20 minutes it has the form of a mini symphony.

A hundred years later, the concentrated and compressed Chamber Symphony is still fresh and overwhelming. The music balances on the borderline between tonal nineteenth-century romanticism and atonal twentieth-century expressionism. It continuously seems to burst out of its joints. Extreme dynamics, nervously interacting motifs and raw exclamations from the brass make your skin crawl. – In his startling score Schoenberg already seems to depict the impending horrors of the First World War. An impressive classic.

Arnold Schoenberg by Egon Schiele (photocredit Wikipedia)

Cartoonesque music

In 1992, the American John Adams (1947) was inspired by this iconic work in his Chamber Symphony. In this stirring piece he pairs a chromatic sound world to cartoonesque film music. He said the idea for this piece arose when he was studying the score of Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony. ‘Meanwhile, my seven-year-old son Sam was watching cartoons in the adjacent room. The hyperactive, insistently aggressive and acrobatic scores for the cartoons mixed in my mind with the Schoenberg music, itself hyperactive, acrobatic and not a little aggressive. Suddenly, I realized how much these two traditions had in common.’

Ripples

Even younger generations still find inspiration in Schoenberg. For instance Jan-Peter de Graaff, born in 1992, the year in which Adams composed his Chamber Symphony. For this concert he wrote a new piece, Rimpelingen (Ripples), for cello and ensemble. The title refers to musical codes that sound like pebble stones falling on a smooth water surface. These launch a game of action and reaction between the soloist and the other musicians.

In Rimpelingen, De Graaff incorporates both Schoenberg’s twelve-tone music and the virtuoso rhythmic drive of Adams. All of this seasoned with, in the composer’s own words, ‘a pinch of jazz and a pleasant Stravinskian pepper, embedded in a hushed impressionist landscape.’

Odd man out

The Piano Quartet Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) composed in 1876 may seem the odd man out in this programme of modern music. But there is indeed a strong connection with Schoenberg. ‘I do not understand your music, but you are right, because I’m old and you are young,’ Mahler said to his experimental colleague. He fervently defended him in public, and once rebuked a visitor for hissing at a concert with Schoenberg’s music. ‘I also hiss at your music,’ the culprit answered.

Schoenberg initially considered Mahler’s music to be uninteresting old hat, but gradually learnt to appreciate it. He even made very successful edits of his song cycles Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Das Lied von der Erde. And here we come full circle. Mahler’s highly romantic Piano Quartet perfectly illustrates the decadent Viennese fin-de-siècle atmosphere Schoenberg said goodbye to in his Chamber Symphony.

Asko|Schönberg, Etienne Siebens, conductor, Hans Woudenberg, cello
Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, 18 May

Arnold Schönberg Chamber Symphony Nr. 1
John Adams Chamber Symphony
Jan-Peter de Graaff Rimpelingen (world première, commissioned by Asko|Schönberg)
Gustav Mahler Piano Quartet in a 

 

#ArnoldSchönberg #AskoSchönberg #EtienneSiebens #GustavMahler #JanPeterDeGraaff #JohnAdams #KammersymphonieOp9

Kenza Koutchoukali: ‘Corona made me feel the more intensely that my passion lies in directing’

The financial damage caused by the corona crisis is immense, and the end is not yet in sight. The website Theaterkrant assembles the stories behind the figures in their series ‘corona practices’. How do freelancers manage? Do they still have work and income? For this series I interviewed director Kenza Koutchoukali, here’s my English translation.

During her studies at the Utrecht School of the Arts, Kenza Koutchoukali (Utrecht, 1988) already had the opportunity to gain practical experience at Dutch National Opera (DNO). For the education department she made an adaptation of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd with and for young people. From that moment she shifted her focus to opera, and in 2015 she started working as a freelance director.

Kenza Koutchoukali (c) Ben Kortman

A year later she directed her first contemporary opera, All Rise! by Jan-Peter de Graaff. In a talent trajectory of DNO in Amsterdam and Paris, she then assisted greats such as Pierre Audi, Claus Guth and Lotte de Beer. In 2018 she was assistant director to Romeo Castellucci in DNO’s production Das Floss der Medusa. The next year she joined the young makers of KASKO, where she can continue her development for two years. Her first project was a staging of the song cycle This is not a fairy tale by composer Anne-Maartje Lemereis.

When Rutte announced the closure of the theatres on 11 March 2020, Koutchoukali was working on a project for the 4th of May, when the Netherlands commemorate the end of World War II. ‘It was a production with a large choir and orchestra in Railway Museum in Utrecht, and it was clear straightaway this couldn’t go ahead’, says Koutchoukali. At the same time, I was preparing for my trajectory as master’s apprentice to Barrie Kosky at the Komische Oper Berlin. When that was cancelled as well, I was actually relieved: I didn’t think it was sensible to travel to Germany when the situation was still so unclear.’

But the uncertainty weighed heavily, Koutchoukali admits. ‘Especially during the first month I worried about whether projects that were still in the development phase would ever take place. It felt pointless to keep working on them. On the other hand, I became restless because I felt the need to make things, but didn’t know how. After all, as a director I am always dependent on others; I cannot make an opera on my own. I can identify with the singer who wondered: ‘Do you still have a voice if you can no longer let it be heard?’

Like many people in the cultural sector, Koutchoukali considered seeking other employment: ‘In March I immediately started applying for jobs outside the performing arts. I even undertook an online course in digital marketing, and considered applying as a music teacher at a secondary school. But the point is: I want to direct, that’s where my full commitment lies. I would give up any job immediately as soon as Covid-19 was over, but then I would be letting a lot of people down.’

Although all productions were rescheduled, Koutchoukali did not immediately run into financial problems. ‘I had a small buffer, because just before corona erupted, I had assisted Monique Wagemakers in a production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at Nederlandse Reisopera (Dutch Travelling Opera). The initiators of the 4 May project were kind enough to reimburse 1/3 of the fee of €5000. I didn’t get paid for the trajectory with the Komische Oper, but the costs I had already made – purchased scores, train journeys and such – were compensated.’

In April, a month after the outbreak of corona, she got a phone call from composer Jan-Peter de Graaff. ‘He told me that Opera Zuid (Opera South) had accepted his proposal to create eight online miniature operas as documentation of our times. Their intendant Waut Koeken had more or less given him carte blanche to realize them and Jan-Peter asked me to direct them. I was overjoyed. Now I had something to focus all my attention on in April and May.’

With this project, Bonsai Garden, she was able to safeguard a third of her monthly income. ‘But it yielded something more important than money, namely the chance to direct Goud! (Gold!). This new co-production of Opera Zuid and Dutch National Opera was planned for a later point in the season and would be directed by Waut. Because of the pandemic, Opera Zuid and DNO decided to move the production forward and I was asked to take over the direction. So in the middle of the corona measures I suddenly had a new production to prepare.’

Koutchoukali applied successfully for the compensation package offered by the Dutch government. ‘This certainly offered some relief, but I stopped the benefit after a month. My partner’s internet business had started to grow considerably precisely because of the pandemic, and it didn’t feel right to keep claiming something I no longer really needed. – I wouldn’t have been eligible for the consecutive benefits anyway.’

Koutchoukali is very aware of her fortunate situation: ‘Even before corona, I often realized how comfortable it is to work in the arts while being able to share your fixed expenses with someone who has a steady income. Thanks mainly to my boyfriend, I was able to continue to meet my monthly obligations while dedicating all my attention on directing. – In case the proverbial washing machine were to break down, he would simply buy a new one.’

Although a staging of Mozart’s Requiem with De Nederlandse Bachvereniging and a production with dance company MANIICO fell prey to the pandemic as well, Koutchoukali experiences the vicissitude concerning Goud! as the most disappointing. ‘The opera was to have its premiere in October for thirty people and an x number of children. But a week before the first performance our government decreed that only thirty visitors in total would be allowed to attend. The production was rescheduled for December, but on the 14th of that month Prime Minister Rutte decided to close theatres entirely. It’s incredibly frustrating, for a while I didn’t know where to direct my energy.’

The continuous uncertainty is not even the worst thing about the ever-changing measures, says Koutchoukali. ‘As a freelance director, I’m used to working with uncertainties, but I’m struggling with a dilemma. Before, I used to invite the whole world to everything I made, but lately I haven’t. I don’t want people to travel unnecessarily or take undue risks. A poignant paradox, because in doing so I am labelling my own work as “unnecessary”. I make things for an audience which I don’t dare invite, while deep down I’m convinced there’s no safer place than the theatre.’

Despite everything, she discerns a small spark of hope in the crisis: ‘Staying at home and missing the theatre intensely has made me feel more clearly than ever that directing is really what I want. When last summer I was able to rehearse once more I simply got high. In addition, I’ve had more time to pursue ideas. I am now going to concentrate full time on developing new projects, such as the Balcony Scenes subsidized by the Fonds Podiumkunsten (Foundation for performing arts).’

With a coy smile Koutchoukali concludes: ‘The good thing is, I notice that my plans get better with time.’

Liked my interview? A gift, however small, is welcome through PayPal, or direct money transfer to my bank account: T. Derks, Amsterdam, NL82 INGB 0004 2616 94. Thanks!

#AnneMaartjeLemereis #JanPeterDeGraaff #KenzaKoutchoukali #MoniueWagemakers #RomeoCastellucci

Maya Fridman and North Netherlands Orchestra shine in cello concertos J.P. De Graaff

The adventurous label TRPTK produces special CDs all the time, and the Russian-Dutch cellist Maya Fridman is a regular guest. If I counted correctly, some eight CDs by – and with her – have already been released, some of them solo.

Recently the ninth disc appeared, on which she and the North Netherlands Orchestra (NNO) give a dazzling performance of two cello concertos by Jan-Peter de Graaff (1992).

De Graaff, born in 1992 in Papendrecht and raised on the island of Terschelling, loves the grand gesture. He decided to embrace the symphony orchestra against the advice of his composition teacher Martijn Padding, who considered it hopelessly outdated. Nor does De Graaff shy away from using equally ‘old-fashioned’ genres such as the concerto; he has already produced five of them.

Rimpelingen (Ripples), his Concerto No. 4 for cello and orchestra (2017), impressed cellist Maya Fridman so deeply that she asked De Graaff to write a new concerto for her. No wonder, because he lets the soloist explore all the possibilities of the instrument, while not skimping on beautiful melodies along the way.

De Graaff is a master at sculpting with sounds, loosely adhering to traditional harmonies without becoming predictable. Ripples is essentially an extended solo for the cello, subtly supported by interjections from the orchestra in ever changing colours, like ripples on a swaying water surface. His overwhelming wealth of ideas does at times put your attention to the test, though.

In Concerto No. 5, The Forest in April (2021) De Graaff again deftly folds the orchestral voices around a virtuoso, varied cello part. The piece is inspired by our destructive relationship with nature, which is expressed in a fierce battle between soloist and orchestra in the second movement. Ominous dissonant harmonies and thundering percussion seem to herald the Apocalypse here.

Fridman’s impassioned recitation is matched by the equally empathic and precise playing of the NNO conducted by Sander Teepen (No.4) and Nicolò Foron (No.5). The crisp and well-balanced recording technique gives their performance extra depth.

https://open.spotify.com/album/63LMv9K2zHkj3udl6okRDt

#JanPeterDeGraaff #MayaFridman #NoordNederlandsOrkest #TRPTK