Louis Andriessen's Annex

[chadfeldheimer]

Did anybody hear the Nonesuch release of his opera "La Commedia". I've read reviews about it and would like to know what the forum members think about it.
[asin] B00K6Y5CJO[/asin]

[lescamil]

That CD release is actually a release of a live recording from the 2008 Holland Festival, warts and all, with a few minor revisions of how some of the prerecorded tape material is handled, and it sounds like Cacciaguida's monologue at the end was totally redone. It's a fine performance, but there is another performance from 2014 with the Great Noise Ensemble that is much better. It was Q2's website last year (might still be there) and it sounds more polished, more confident, and is worthy of a similar release as this Holland Festival recording. Too bad it wasn't filmed. That was perhaps the most disappointing thing about the Nonesuch recording. The camera angles and off many times, there is some poor editing juxtaposing the film and live action, and there are no subtitles. There is a libretto in the booklet, but subtitles would have been infinitely more helpful.

[chadfeldheimer]

That CD release is actually a release of a live recording from the 2008 Holland Festival, warts and all, with a few minor revisions of how some of the prerecorded tape material is handled, and it sounds like Cacciaguida's monologue at the end was totally redone. It's a fine performance, but there is another performance from 2014 with the Great Noise Ensemble that is much better. It was Q2's website last year (might still be there) and it sounds more polished, more confident, and is worthy of a similar release as this Holland Festival recording. Too bad it wasn't filmed. That was perhaps the most disappointing thing about the Nonesuch recording. The camera angles and off many times, there is some poor editing juxtaposing the film and live action, and there are no subtitles. There is a libretto in the booklet, but subtitles would have been infinitely more helpful.

Thanks for the answer. Just listened to parts of the recording on Q2. I agree, sounds really like a very good performance to me. Too bad there is no CD/DVD release of that.

[lescamil]

The Holland Festival performance of his new work Theatre of the World is now available online. I haven't gotten through it all yet, but it sounds better than the world premiere performance in Los Angeles, which I attended.

http://www.radio4.nl/luister-concerten/concerten/6099/holland-festival-louis-andriessens-opera-theatre-of-the-world

After hearing this work a bit since the world premiere and this performance, I am still not sure what I think of it. It's a bit less organized and focused compared to Andriessen's other operas/music theater works, and it seems to relish that fact a bit more, considering that the subject of this opera, Kircher, was such a renaissance man. Hearing it switch between languages, musical styles, moods, etc at the drop of a hat can be disorienting, but there is much music in here to be enjoyed despite this. The main theme of the work is even, dare I say, quite catchy, and it stuck with me even after exiting Disney Hall after the world premiere. Give it a try.

[Mandryka]

Can anyone recommend something I can read about his philosophical or social ideas, and how they're reflected in his music? For example, is there any interesting connection between Der Staat and Plato?

[Herman]

This afternoon the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and the Cappela choir performed the premier of Louis Andriessen valedictory 'May', a 20 minute piece for period orchestra and choir, set on a Dutch poem from the nineteeneighties (Mei by Herman Gorter). It is a piece in memory of Frans Brüggen, which is why it's for this orchestra.

This is most likely Andriessen's last full composition, as he's been developing Alzheimer's and is in a carehome (playing the piano every day).

I'm not Andriessen expert, but it did sound a bit like his previous orchestra piece for the Concertgebouw 'Mysteries'.

Obviously the premier, in the Concertgebouw was sans audience, it was streamed by npo radio / tv, and hopefully one can find it there.

No audience, no applause, no composer, no nothing. Sad.

[Herman]

https://www.nporadio4.nl/ntrzaterdagmatinee/gemist

you have to move to min 50:00. There's a news broadcast first and a Mozart 40 and a short choir piece first.

The Andriessen is quite beautiful. It's interesting how the composer indulged in horizontal melodies more and more as he got older, and wrote for string orchestras more.

[Mandryka]

https://www.nporadio4.nl/ntrzaterdagmatinee/gemist

you have to move to min 50:00. There's a news broadcast first and a Mozart 40 and a short choir piece first.

The Andriessen is quite beautiful. It's interesting how the composer indulged in horizontal melodies more and more as he got older, and wrote for string orchestras more.

It certainly has a different feel from his De Staat! I've only listened to the first 20 minutes or so so far. It's full of evocative and atmospheric melodies, but somehow there are enough unexpected contrasting instrumental moments, and indeed unexpected changes in the sung music,  to make the music sound slightly precarious, fragile.  I will finish it tomorrow.

What's it about?

(That looks like an excellent streaming site, by the way.)

[Herman]

It certainly has a different feel from his De Staat! I've only listened to the first 20 minutes or so so far. It's full of evocative and atmospheric melodies, but somehow there are enough unexpected contrasting instrumental moments, and indeed unexpected changes in the sung music,  to make the music sound slightly precarious, fragile.  I will finish it tomorrow.

What's it about?

It's very tempting to say (à la George Balanchine) it's about 25 minutes long.

I'd say it about letting go, but my guess is as good as anyone's. It's about what you heard. His later work is much more horizontal than the Staat and Hoketus. There is even a Mahlerian whisp of a melody here.

The poem is a book Andriessen found in his dad's, Hendrik Andriessen's, book case. Oddly it's a poem about the wonders of spring, while this is, seriously, no spring music. I have a 1900 copy of this book, too.

The piece is dedicated to Frans Brüggen, who died a couple years ago. This is why it's written for period orchestra. I wonder how this is going to work when other orchestras want to play this piece. The recorder solo early on is on an instrument especially handmade for this piece, since there are no 330 Hz recorders apparently.

[Mandryka]

here is even a Mahlerian whisp of a melody here.

Late Rihm too, who was in turn no stranger to Mahler's music. And more surprisingly  I'd say, without being sure that I can back it up, some late Stockhausen - Klang -- also.

[T. D.]

It certainly has a different feel from his De Staat! I've only listened to the first 20 minutes or so so far. It's full of evocative and atmospheric melodies, but somehow there are enough unexpected contrasting instrumental moments, and indeed unexpected changes in the sung music,  to make the music sound slightly precarious, fragile.  I will finish it tomorrow.

What's it about?

(That looks like an excellent streaming site, by the way.)

Have you heard his older piece De Tijd (1980-81)? That's also vocal music with a very different feel from De Staat (and others).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm2PNQEvasc

[Mandryka]

Have you heard his older piece De Tijd (1980-81)? That's also vocal music with a very different feel from De Staat (and others).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm2PNQEvasc

Will do, thanks. After 5 minutes I can hear what you mean.

[Mandryka]

It's very tempting to say (à la George Balanchine) it's about 25 minutes long.

Ha! I just assumed that it went on for the full 3 and a half hours of the stream!  I thought you were making a deep and elusive witty comment.

[Mandryka]

Have you heard his older piece De Tijd (1980-81)? That's also vocal music with a very different feel from De Staat (and others).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm2PNQEvasc

It's different, it doesn't have the strange fragility that I hear from the changes in May. This strange music, which is full of melody, but doesn't have a melodic identity.

[Herman]

It's different, it doesn't have the strange fragility that I hear from the changes in May. This strange music, which is full of melody, but doesn't have a melodic identity.

Yes, this is the beauty of 'May.' You could try and find Andriessen's 'Mysteries,' too. Another dad-related late work.

[Mandryka]

Yes, this is the beauty of 'May.' You could try and find Andriessen's 'Mysteries,' too. Another dad-related late work.

It's on the Concertgebouw website, and I've heard the first two movements. Very atmospheric . . .

[Herman]

It's on the Concertgebouw website, and I've heard the first two movements. Very atmospheric . . .

Yeah, Andriessen really changed in his late period, with a lot of horizontal melodies, rather than stacked chords.

[bhodges]

A sad week, first losing Frederic Rzewski, and now Louis Andriessen:

https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2021/07/01/960923935/louis-andriessen-influential-iconoclastic-dutch-composer-dies-at-age-82

My first encounter with his music, and still a piece I love, was Workers Union (1975), "for any loud-sounding group of instruments." Bang on a Can has an excellent recorded version, and I also like this one from the 2011 Tune-In Festival, spearheaded by eighth blackbird:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEMxAcIf_iw

--Bruce

[Herman]

My feeling is that Andriessen kind of moved back as he got older towards his dad and his dad's religious orientation. In a long interview for his 80th birthday he mentions catholicism as one of his bases.

Of course it's already there in De Materie, with Hadewych.

[Mandryka]

Thanks for mentioning Hadewijch, which I'd never heard before and which I'm enjoying, indeed I'd never even heard of the mystic poet Hadewijch.