Highlights

The sound of trumpeter Avishai Cohen is instantly recognizable. Yet he keeps looking for new ways to express himself and to compose. He is a master at bringing different worlds together harmoniously. This is why he has been compared to the greatest jazz musicians in history by the American press: ‘Like Miles Davis, he can make the trumpet a vehicle for uttering the most poignant human cries’, wrote JazzTimes.

The Avishai Cohen Quartet's new album Ashes to Gold was recently released on the quality label ECM Records. Recorded in November 2023, a month after the start of the horrific war in Israel and Palestine. It is his call for a cease-fire.

Ashes to Gold: the title imagery is drawn from the old Japanese art of kintsugi, the ceramic repair work “where you take the old and the broken and try and put the pieces back together, to make something golden and beautiful from the fragments,” says Avishai Cohen.  “In a way I think that’s where we dwell. Our reality. And although this music can’t help but reflect the times, it also – in my wishful imagination - has some hope to it. At least, it is not only dark.”

I.s.m. 

Arnold Schoenberg was the greatest musical innovator of the 20th century. According to pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, each new piano piece of his heralded a new phase: on the piano, Schoenberg developed compositional techniques that he then applied in other works. This imaginative program pulsates with the spirit of those innovations, interwoven with refreshing work from other composers. Aimard, leading authority on modern piano music, sheds light on his repertoire choices. A unique opportunity to hear Schönberg’s complete piano oeuvre, at the very highest level.

Schoenberg’s originality is clearly not reflected in his titles, which are all rather straightforward and functional. But his notes were without exception groundbreaking. The set of three pieces for solo piano Drei Klavierstücke (1909) is one of the earliest examples of atonality, and in Suite für Klavier (1921) and Fünf Klavierstücke (1920-23) Schönberg applied his twelve-tone technique for the first time. Aimard combines them with music by Schönberg’s antipode Igor Stravinsky. Aleksandr Skrjabin experimented with chromaticism in his own unique way.

Programme booklet (Dutch)

Who is afraid of Arnold Schoenberg? His popular Kammersinfonie No. 1 is an early masterpiece that is clearly rooted in the 19th century, yet beneath it whispers of tonal unrest begin to stir. Asko|Schoenberg honours its namesake tonight with a programme in which superior instrumental mastery is the common denominator. Listen closely as Schoenberg’s meticulous craftsmanship finds new life in the music of his students Alban Berg and Oliver Knussen (1952-2018), a dear friend of Asko|Schönberg and the Muziekgebouw.

Schoenberg chose an unusual ensemble for his chamber symphony, with ten wind players and only five string players. This rearrangement of ensemble relationships, pioneered by Schoenberg, found enthusiastic followers, including Alban Berg. His finely crafted Kammerkonzert requires an ensemble of no less than thirteen wind instruments, with the piano and violin as soloists. Berg wrote the work on the occasion of Schoenberg’s fiftieth birthday. The closing piece of the programme is the deeply moving, wonderful requiem Songs for Sue (2006), which Knussen composed after the death of his wife.

Programme booklet (Dutch)

Nicolai, one of the most influential figures in the electronic music scene under his alias Alva Noto, is praised for his concise music based on digital technology. Ensemble Modern presents a sweeping instrumental rendition of Xerrox Vol. 4, an album that Nicolai himself considers to be one of his most emotionally resonant works. Sound, image and light create an immersive experience in this second collaboration between the composer and the out-of-the-box ensemble.

Alva Noto’s series Xerrox is based on the endless reproduction and manipulation of digital source material. A departure from his earlier focus on abstraction, Nicolai’s music now embraces melody, a change that can be traced back to his collaboration with Japanese synth-pop legend Ryuichi Sakamoto. Nicolai and Sakamoto collaborated with Ensemble Modern on their project utp_ (2007). Ensemble Modern is a contemporary music ensemble that is known for its pioneering works with classical instruments.