The Concertzender is to record concerts during the Zeist Music Days Summer Festival which takes place from August 18 to 29.
Ruysdael Kwartet & Vinsent Planjer percussion
Sound worlds bridging dreams, stillness and imagination
Thursday 20 Augustus, 20.00
Grote Kerkzaal Evangelische Broedergemeente, Zeist
The theme of the 37th edition of the Zeist Music Days is Quartet+. This theme serves as a unifying thread throughout the festival, celebrating the string quartet as a living, breathing organism that engages in dialogue with various other instruments. One concert that beautifully embodies this theme features the Ruysdael Quartet performing with the brilliant percussionist Vinsent Planjer. The concert takes the audience on a colourful journey through Czech masterpieces by Erwin Schulhoff, Pavel Haas and Josef Suk, complemented by Vinsent Planjer’s enchanting new quintet, In My Dream, I Was Awake. From the “Monkey Mountains” of Pavel Haas to the dreamscapes of Josef Suk and Vinsent Planjer, it is a concert rich in fantasy, imagination, still lifes and contrasts.
Programma
Erwin Schulhoff – Five pieces voor string quartet
Pavel Haas – String quartet no. 2, op. 7 (‘From the monkey mountains’)
Josef Suk – Meditation on the Old Bohemian Chorale “Saint Wenceslas”, op. 35A
Vinsent Planjer – Quintet In My Dream, I Was Awake (2026, Dutch première)
All four members of the Ruysdael Quartet are renowned in their own right: violinists Joris van Rijn and Emi Ohi Resnick are concertmasters for the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic. Gijs Kramers is not only a violist but also a conductor and arranger and he worked for many years as the artistic director of the eternally youthful Ricciotti Ensemble. Michael Müller is the principal cellist of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and a member of the ensemble LUDWIG. Together, they have formed the highly acclaimed and incredibly versatile Ruysdael Quartet for over 25 years. Many composers have written new works specifically for the quartet, including clarinetist and composer Jörg Widmann. To mark the Ruysdael Quartet’s 25th anniversary, no fewer than 25 composers wrote miniature pieces; a selection of these was performed during the 2024 anniversary edition of the Zeist Music Days festival.
As part of the Quartet+ theme, the Ruysdael Quartet performs with Vinsent Planjer, one of the leading percussionists in the Netherlands and an acclaimed artist internationally. Vinsent plays a prominent role in the Rembrandt Frerichs Trio, an ensemble that constantly reinvents jazz by blending it with genres such as early music and traditional Middle Eastern music.
>>> Click here to listen to Tomas Beijer’s miniature Windmill for the Ruysdael Quartet.
>>> Click here to listen to Vinsent Planjer in The Hilltop together with cellist Benjamin Glorieux and contrabassist Dominic Seldis.
Click here for more information about the concert.
