programme
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1972)
Étude for player piano (1917)
Circus Polka, arranged for piano (1942)
Chorale for harmonium (1920)
Otche Nash (Our Father, 1926)
Symphony of Psalms (1930, arr. Shostakovich for piano four hands + choir)
Petroesjka (1911, fragment for player piano)
Trois pièces faciles (1915, piano four hands)
Intermission
Les Noces (1919 version, completed by Theo Verbey, for choir, two cimbaloms, harmonium, player piano, and percussion)
performers
Cappella Amsterdam
New European Ensemble
Zero Dance Theatre
Denden Karadeniz choreographer
Daniel Reuss conductor
Soloists in Les Noces
Dārta Liepiņa soprano
Ludmila Schwartzwalder mezzo-soprano
Martin Logar tenor
Matija Bizjan bass
Instrumentation – New European Ensemble
Hanna Shybayeva piano 1
Malgorzata Walentynowicz piano 2 / harmonium
Ryoko Imai percussion
Porter Ellerman percussion
Jan Rokyta cimbalom
Michiel Weidner cimbalom
Dancers – Zero Dance Theatre
Lars de Vos
Sophia Mason
Stasy Terehhova
Lola van Rumpt
Jan Schellekens
Rolf Kuijpers
Doris Groeneveld
Lobke Leijendekker
Niels van der Meulen
Denden Karadeniz
backgrond
Igor Stravinsky was a musical visionary, a composer who broke traditions and opened new worlds. His work is infused with rhythm, energy, and innovation—music that is not only heard but also felt and moved. In this programme, Cappella Amsterdam, New European Ensemble, and conductor Daniel Reuss bring Stravinsky’s unmistakable musical language to life, together with eight dancers from Zero Dance Theatre under the direction of choreographer Denden Karadeniz.
At the heart of the evening is Les Noces, Stravinsky’s electrifying and raw celebration of a Russian wedding, performed in the rarely heard 1919 version. Its pulsing rhythms and percussive piano parts provide the perfect foundation for Karadeniz’s dynamic movement language. But Stravinsky’s fascination with rhythm and mechanics runs as a common thread throughout the entire program: from the playful Piano-Rag-Music and the eccentric Circus Polka to the meditative power of Chorale and the Symphony of Psalms, arranged for four hands by Shostakovich.
Stravinsky’s music is groundbreaking, kinetic, and unpredictable—just like this concert.
cd release
Late Works
During this concert series, the album Igor Stravinsky: Late Works, featuring Stravinsky’s late and lesser-known compositions, is also presented. With Late Works, Cappella Amsterdam and the Noord Nederlands Orkest, conducted by Daniel Reuss, perform a selection of Stravinsky’s late works.
This period, in which the composer experimented with twelve-tone technique while retaining his own voice, produced music of major significance. The CD includes both sacred compositions, such as Otche Nash and Requiem Canticles, as well as intimate “in memoriam” pieces, including Elegy for J.F.K. and Introitus: T.S. Eliot in Memoriam. Together, they form a portrait of Stravinsky’s reflective final years.
The CD is now available for pre-order via our order form.
FIRST REVIEW
Opus Klassiek: “[..] After nearly an hour of the most compelling kind of complexity, the familiar emotional depth of Wolf’s songs at the end almost feels from another planet. […] That this CD evokes such a memory speaks volumes about the expressive power of both the music and the performance.”
Click here to read the full review in dutch (you will be redirected to the Opus Klassiek website).
