Summer Course in an idyllic Dutch cloister
In 2020 I’m back in Drachten (NL), where we will have our wonderful Apollo Summer Academy. Next to chamber music, tutored by the likes of Catherine Manson, Cassandra Luckhardt and Eric Hoeprich, students can also perform Beethoven’s 7th Symphony under the mesmerising direction of David Rabinovich. There are always interesting evening activities as well; last year I did a presentation about practice techniques for example.
Recorder Consort: War, peace and lament
Perhaps my favourite element of the course is our Recorder Consort. This year roaring, lamenting and celebrating in colours of war and peace.
War and peace, two situations that are just as important to human history as day and night. In music, the programmatic Battaglia genre already emerged in the Renaissance. How do you imitate a war with your voice or with your instruments? We play the first ever war song by Clément Janequin.
Besides jolly and fiery music, however, also music for grief, for getting better and for peace. Because that, too, is part of the war. With Ignaz von Biber we also hear the drunken jolly soldiers, and their lament.
With Beethoven we also hear the grief of the marching soldiers. With Muffat we heal the wounds, after which we have time for remembrance: my own War Requiem. Nowadays there are still wars raging all over the world every day. The music of countries now at war comes together and speaks of hope for the future. The composition will consist of ordinary, beautifully sounding notes; no modern techniques are required.
Finally, we celebrate peace with John Lennon.
The idea for this programme was inspired by the benefit concert in which Ludwig van Beethoven premiered his seventh symphony, in honour of the soldiers who were injured during the Battle of Hanau.
War
La Bataille – Clément Janequin
A La Bataglia – Heinrich Isaac
Dance
Galliard Battaglia – Samuel Scheidt
Beverage and Lament
Ignaz von Biber – Battaglia a 9
Soldiers funeral march
Symphony 7, Allegretto – Ludwig von Beethoven
Convalescing for the wounded
Concerto grosso Convalescentia – Georg Muffat
Remembrance
War Requiem – Robert de Bree
Peace
Concerto Grosso based on John Lennon – Imagine
A new war…
La Battaglia di Legnano – Giuseppe Verdi