A special Thema programme on Wednesday 14 July pays tribute to Louis Andriessen who died on 1 July 2021 at the age of 82 as the result of Alzheimer and vascular dementia.
Andriessen is considered to be the most influential Dutch composer since Sweelinck. He leaves behind an incomparable oeuvre which incorporates influences from minimal music, rock, avant-garde and Stravinsky. His concise and powerful style is full of perfect notes and hard punches and was influential all over the world, particularly in England and the United States.
This uncompromising minimal style using forceful chords became known as The Hague school and provided us with masterpeices such as De Staat, Mausoleum, Hoketus and the opera De Materie.
The success of his radical musical experiments allowed him to establish the revolutionary ensembles Hoketus and De Volharding. Reinbert de Leeuw, the conductor who also recently passed away, was responsible for many of the premieres of Andriessen’s work.
There was also a more poetical and serene side to Andriessen’s music in which delicate sounds and lengthy moments of ecstasy are prominent.
Our tribute in Thema features some of this contemplative, dreamlike and tranquil work.
On Monday 19 July (20.00-22.00 CET) we will also broadcast a Concertzender Live programme from August last year with a recording made during the Orlando Festival in 2019 with two hours of his (rarely performed) chamber music.
