World premiere 'Spaces of Blank'
Christianne Stotijn and Michel van der Aa,
photo Marco Borggreve
March 2009 |
Michel Van der Aa's new song cycle Spaces of Blank for mezzo-soprano, orchestra and soundtrack was successfully premiered on 19 March in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. The Dutch mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn was soloist, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Ed Spanjaard.
The 26-minute work, set to texts by Emily Dickinson, Rozalie Hirs and Anne Carson, was commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Radio France, the NDR Orchestra in Hamburg and the Fund for the Creation of Music.
Co-commissioner Radio France has programmed the piece for 1 October 2010 in Lyon by the Orchestre
Philharmonique de Radio France, with Christianne Stotijn returning as soloist. Performance by the NDR Orchestra in Hamburg is scheduled for later in the 2010/2011 season.
Mezzo as muse in flexible song cycle
[…] Christianne Stotijn, for whom the work was written, has – as a true muse should – roused the singer in Van der Aa.
In an idiom that is at the same time sec and sumptuous, and absolutely coherent but seldom tonal, Van der Aa unfolds flexible sound combinations, cool chords à la Stravinsky, pumping Puccinian bass notes and driving repeated notes reminiscent of the most fearful song in the history of music, Schubert’s Erlkönig.
***** (5 stars)
— De Volkskrant, Frits van der Waa, 20 March 2009
- read more about Spaces of Blank »
- watch TV interview in 'De Wereld Draait Door (Dutch) »
After Life revivals in Amsterdam, London and Lyon
Margriet van Reisen, Claron McFadden
March 2009 |
The successful opera After Life, following its sold-out performances at the 2006 Holland Festival, will be staged in Amsterdam, London and Lyon in the 2009/2010 season. In Amsterdam, De Nederlandse Opera presents the newly revised version in Het Muziektheater in September/October 2009, with the premiere on 28 September. The DNO production will be staged additionally at Opera de Lyon in March 2010 (three performances beginning on 18 March). The Barbican Centre in London will present a semi-staged performance during its 'Present Voices' series on 15 May 2010.
This revival gives Van der Aa the opportunity to polish the score and to adjust the staging for touring. The same excellent cast will return, accompanied by the Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble and conductor Otto Tausk.
- read more about After Life »
- watch Barbican interview (YouTube) »
- order tickets for Amsterdam revival »
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra devotes concert to Van der Aa
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
March 2009 |
On 28 February 2009 the BBC Scottish Orchestra performed four compositions by Van der Aa in its Composer Portrait series in Glasgow, under the direction of Franck Ollu. The full-length evening programme featured the works Here [enclosed], Memo, Second Self (all UK premieres) and Imprint. Michel van der Aa's musical portrait was filled with 'unsettlingly stark shapes, shadows and silences, spliced with sudden moments of surrealism... [His] music had something to say, and said it with an incisive sense of drama.' (The Herald) *****
This concert will be broadcast on 18 April in the BBC 3's 'Hear and Now' Series. (22:30-24:00 hrs, BBC Radio 3)
World premiere of 'The Book of Disquiet / Das Buch der Unruhe'
Klaus Maria BrandauerJanuary 2009 | Michel van der Aa's newest music theatre piece, The Book of Disquiet was successfully performed on 2 January as the official opening of the LINZ09 (Austria) European Capital of Culture year. The premiere in the Hafenhalle was the first in a series of three sold-out performances.
The Book of Disquiet is based on texts by Fernando Pessoa. This full-length work features the most essential entries from the Portuguese master’s fictitious diary The Book of Disquiet. We follow the protagonist, played by the acclaimed actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, on stage and in video projections, and witness a haunting mosaic of dreams, psychological notations, autobiographical vignettes and unsparing introspection.
Magically, it all coheres: the parade of visuals, beautifully shot under Van der Aa's direction; the musing disconnectedness of Brandauer's utterances, which create the texture of a dream. If it's in the nature of Pessoa's book that there can be no resolution, there is a kind of closure here, a sense of knowing much more about the author and his alter ego than we ever would otherwise.
- The Guardian, Andrew Clements
In Book of Disquiet, which brings together the two titans Fernando Pessoa and Klaus Maria Brandauer, Van der Aa has set himself a particularly difficult task. His success is due to the subtlety with which he organises all the ingredients. The music reflects the feelings and ideas described: at times melancholy, at times highly formal, but always dramatic given the alternation between the two.
- NRC Handelsblad, Mischa Spel
Ana Moura, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Joao Reis
In addition to his role as composer, Van der Aa is also film and stage director. In seamlessly integrating music, staging and video images he continues the path taken with his acclaimed operas One and After Life. Alter egos created in the video projections supplement and extend the protagonist on stage, and a moving portrait rises of a man coming to terms with his own identity.
Following its first performances in Linz, the work will be presented at the ZaterdagMatinee at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw on 10 October 2009.
- read more about The Book of Disquiet (incl. audio and video excerpts)»
- read Interview Michel van der Aa about The Book of Disquiet »
- watch ORF news item about the world premiere (German) »