PROFOUND SOUND – Asko Schönberg + Cappella Amsterdam

Gaudeamus Muziekweek will be opened by two of Holland’s most praised and beloved new music ensembles: Asko|Schönberg and Cappella Amsterdam. Together they will perform the world premiere of a new work by the young Russian composer Alexander Khubeev, winner of the Gaudeamus Award in 2015. The jury praised his “advanced techniques” and “mysterious and profound sound world”. That is why he was commissioned to write a new piece. Since then Khubeev has worked on this new piece in relative silence, the result of which we will hear tonight.

In White/Waves by Gaudeamus Award 2017 nominee Sky Macklay, we will hear an unpredictable piece in which wild outbursts compete with overwhelming waves of ‘white noise’. The winner of 2007, Christopher Trapani, returns this year as a member of the jury and his winning piece, Sparrow Episodes, will be performed tonight as well. In this composition, Trapani creates a continuously forward moving world, in which his electric guitar sounds again and again from his incredibly cheap amplifier from the Parisian apartment where he wrote this piece.

And finally, Asko|Schönberg will once again perform two pieces especially written for them: Jan Peter de Graaffs Rimpelingen and Meanwhile, behind, between, etcetera by Wilbert Bulsink, a microtonal labyrinth in which he searches for what can be found in between the notes of a piano.

Prior to the opening concert there is an introduction of the nominees of the Gaudeamus Award 2017 in the foyer of the Great Hall.

Download here the handout for this concert.

Photo © Anna van Kooij