Compiled by our Classical Music desk.
A piece for six harpsichords, and another one for seven bassoons. We don’t broadcast something like that every day.
Sometimes even harpsichordists like a break from baroque music. This is why the Prix Annelie de Man exists; an award for a composer who writes a new piece for the harpsichord. In 2012, the competition was part of the November Music festival. The participants presented music for harpsichord and electronics, and music for harpsichord and horn.
And since the harpsichordists were all present in Den Bosch anyway… Why not play a piece for six harpsichords at once? Barocco starts with the tuning of the instruments and then moves on to some baroque clichés, but soon ends in an overwhelming cloud of cascading tones. Jazz influences are never far away.
At the same festival, we also heard a piece for seven bassoons. Rushes isn’t sheer joyful chaos like Barocco. Instead it is a piece in the Minimalist tradition. For an hour or so, opposing rhythms overlap, with an intoxicating effect.
Playlist
1. Kristoffer Zegers – Barocco
2. Sohrab Uduman – Breath across autumnal ground
3. Chikage Inai – H into H
4. Panos Iliopoulos – L’Amstellodamasoille
5. Roderik de Man – Le clavecin illuminé
6. Michael Gordon – Rushes
