Hi everybody!

[Phaedrus]

Hi everybody  ,


I've been reading some postings for a couple of days and like this forum very much. Seems to be one of those places that'll broaden your horizon and will lead you into new uncharted territories. Exciting!

Who am I? Dutch male, turning 41 this sunday, amateur clarinetist, working in worldwide logistics.

Interests:
Music: Mainly Mahler, but also Strauss, Raff, Jurriaan Andriessen, Shostakovich, Aho, Nielsen, Sandstroem and Jacques Brel.

Literature: Hermann Hesse, Peter Hoeg, Robert M. Pirsig, Jens Malte Fischers biography of Mahler and a 4th go at Hofstaedter's "Goedel, Escher, Bach".

I hope to meet a lot of exciting people and share opinions.

LOL from Holland!

Phaedrus
non multa scire scio

[karlhenning]

Welcome, Phaedrus!

[bhodges]

Hi Phaedrus, and welcome.  Fascinating list of composers there.  Coincidentally just this week I began exploring SymphonyCast (with archived concerts) and will probably be listening to Aho's Symphony No. 7, "Insect Symphony" later, by Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra.  (Link here.)

Where are you in Holland?  (I love the Concertgebouw Orchestra.)

--Bruce

[Maciek]

Welcome!

[Harry]

Welkom op dit forum P, weer een Nederlander erbij. 

[Que]

Hartelijk welkom en veel plezier op het forum!

Q

[BachQ]

WELCOME! 

[Steve]

Welcome, indeed. 

You can never have too many Mahlerites.

[Kullervo]

Nice to see another Hesse fan

[pjme]

En nog snel een groet uit Belgie!

Peter

[Phaedrus]

Hi everybody,

Trying to answer your questions in no particular order:

I live in the south of Holland in Kerkrade ,and I literally live on the german border: By crossing the street, I'm on german territory.

I also work as a volunteer for the WMC (see www.wmc.nl).

Amsterdam is about 2.5 hours travel, and I occasionally do this to go to the Concertgebouw concerts. Cologne and Duesseldorf are much closer, and the classical orchestras performing there are pretty fine too, at a fraction of the cost of a Concertgebouw ticket.

I love Aho's music, but am still exploring it. All scandinavian music is very beautiful, especially contemporary music.

Hesse is my favorite author: People who mock him say that only very young or very old people like him, but I disagree.

Since the Mahler bug bit me, I seem to be buying more and more of Mahler, and less and less of other composers. Odd, considering that there is a vast quantity of music out there......

LOL

Phaedrus

[Hollywood]

Greetings from Austria, Phaedrus. Welcome aboard. 

[DetUudslukkelige]

I'm relatively new, as well (as you could probably tell), but nonetheless, welcome to GMG! I'm always interested to see all of the different opinions on music, and composers (Mahler being a prime example of this) certainly seem to be as differently interpreted by every listener as they are by each performer, so all input is certainly valuable.

[Johan B]

Welcome to the GMG. There are more newbies from the Netherlands on this forum. Invasion . Nice site you are working for!

I also like the http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/ubb/login.html and http://account.groupee.com/api?CSS_ID=1179858351000&ON_COMPLETION_URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwell-temperedforum.groupee.net%2Feve&ACTION=LOGIN&CLIENT_OID=88610974

Best regards from Groningen,

Johan B

[Greta]

Welcome from Texas, Phaedrus!

Ik vind Nederlands mooi.   I spent a few months there but didn't get to make it to Kerkrade, did go to Maastricht though, which was just gorgeous.

I am very much familiar with the WMC, you guys have a wonderful tradition of wind and brass band there, harmonie and fanfare that is!

I was also crazy about Mahler this year, you will find yourself in good company here. Great to have you among us!

-Greta

EDIT: Happy Birthday, BTW!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Ook een groet van mij, Phaedrus! Ik zit in Delft. Je zult je hier kunnen vermaken - veel informatie, veel aardige mensen.

Enne - I love Mahler, too.

[Phaedrus]

Hi Bruce,

Aho describes his own clarinet concerto as follows:

"When we (Martin Froest and Aho) met, Martin told me about the technical tricks of the clarinet, which increase the expressivity and virtuosisty of the instrument, and in my concerto I have made use of these.

The concerto has five movements, which are played without pause. The begining (tempestoso) is very dramatic and powerful, but the first movement also contains a beautiful, slow middle section. The second movement consists of a virtuoso solo cadenza, which is dominated by the mysterious tremoloes of the clarinet.
The cadenza leads to the centre and culmination of the concerto, Vivace, con brio, which is the most virtuosic music for the orchestra and for the soloist. Here the time signature changes almost every bar, and therefore this rhythmically capricious movement is also quite difficult for the conductor.
After a big culmination comes the slow, melancholy and songful 4th movement, Adagio, mesto. The Epilogue of the concerto is slow, too; the atmosphere of the last movement is unreal and mysterious. The solo part at the end consists largely of the broken, multiphonic sounds of the clarinet. The concerto fades away into silence."

Froest is a master: No noise from breathing or keys flapping and his playing, intonation, schleifer and multiphony just plain perfect. For now I'll keep struggling with the 4 Spohr clarinet concertos. I'll never master them, but they are o so beautiful too....

To be short, I'm gonna enjoy this recording, together with th e Lindberg, for years and years to come.

LOL

Phaedrus

[bhodges]

Phaedrus, thanks for the description.  I really enjoyed listening to Aho's Symphony No. 7 ("Insect Symphony") yesterday -- Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra got a standing ovation, and you could hear the "bravos" in the broadcast -- so I want to hear more of Aho's music. 

This sounds quite interesting, thank you. 

--Bruce

[Phaedrus]

Hi Greta

Glad to hear that you know the WMC!

Since I noticed that you're also interested in wind music and brass music, I should tell you that I'm also playing in an ensemble consisting of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 french horns, a bassoon, a bass clarinet and 2 b flat clarinets.

We recently performed Jurriaan Andriessen's Respiration Suite. It was commisioned by and premiered at a congress of pulmonary specialists. Andriessen expresses in his music the various areas of expertise: there is a part dealing with outer space, one part with deep sea, and one part is called "blood air dialogue". It's fantastic, but requires a very high level of skill and concentration: It's a real treat to perform!

Currently we're playing:
Elgar: Chanson de matin
Theodore Gouvy: Octet opus 72
Charles Gounod: Petite Symphony
Joachim Raff: Sinfonietta Opus 188
Elgar: Serenade Opus 20
Donizetti: Sinfonia
Gordon Jacob: Old wine in new bottles

We're always struggling to find new challenging music and often adapt existing music for lack of it.

Cheers from Holland!

Phaedrus

[Christo]

Hi Phaedrus,

Welcome to this forum! Anyone who mentiones the unlikely names of Jurriaan Andriessen or Sandstroem, or even a piece like Gordon Jacob's Old wine in new bottles (I heard it 20 years ago and still remember its whistful tunes) deserves our full attention.

Yes, I love Mahler, but no: no Strauss, neither the Viennese idols nor Richard, please. Okay: we'll agree on Nielsen and Shosta, and probably lots more.

Utrecht, Christo