Frieda Gustavs & Christiaan Richter

sep 15th, 2024, 3pm – Bruckner Casco Festival

What to expect?

New piece Elisabeth by Frieda Gustavs: Imagine, you’re sitting below and 20 trombones are playing from the surrounding balcony of the Muziekgebouw above you, while Pitou Nicolaes and Jasmine Karimova, together with Frieda, sing about what is so different in our time compared to Bruckner’s time, but also about things that don’t change at all. Frieda’s four letters to her great-great-grandmother tell the story. Listen to Frieda’s Feed me Colors to get a taste of what you will hear.

New piece by Christiaan Richter: Christiaan is a hardcore Bruckner fan and especially loves his 5th Symphony. Christiaan merges all four movements of this symphony into a 45-minute super finale in which the sieved, pressed, and rinsed material is performed by two quintets and a piano. Christiaan promises that the piece will be disruptive for listeners. Listen to Christiaan’s Wendingen to get a taste of what you will hear.

Frieda Gustavs & Bruckner 2

Frieda has composed innovative and acclaimed music for the Opera Forward Festival and the Holland Festival. Frieda draws inspiration from centuries-old polyphony and anything with a voice. She is fascinated by Mongolian throat singing, Bulgarian women’s voices, world music, and contemporary artists from all genres. Frieda enjoys storytelling in her pieces, using essential texts and narratives, sometimes accentuating her zeitgeist with visual elements and often directing her performances herself.

Frieda on her new composition: Elisabeth

“In celebrating Bruckner’s birthday, we look back in time. His name and those of his contemporaries are familiar and often associated with the term ‘composer.’ I wanted to become aware of how far back we are truly reaching and called my grandmother Jorinde, my source of information when it comes to the past. Together, we discovered the following: When Bruckner’s Second Symphony premiered at the same time as the World Exhibition in 1873, my great-great-great-grandmother Elisabeth was a young woman, about the same age as I am now. That spans six generations and five generations back: 6. Elisabeth Schnorr von Carolsfeld (born Kerner, from 1857), 5. Maria (born 1885), 4. Ingeborg (born 1910), 3. Jorinde (born 1943), 2. Svea (born 1966), 1. Frieda (born 1996).

The singers: Pitou Nicolaes & Jasmine Karimova

Pitou had an early interest in music, initially with a love for classical music. From the age of ten to fifteen, she sang in the National Children’s Choir. After high school, she returned to music and auditioned for the pop program at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Solo, she primarily pursued pop music, especially in collaboration with the Kobra Ensemble. For Pitou, emotion always takes precedence over technique.

Jasmine Karimova is a musician, painter, and actress. Karimova is of Tajik descent but was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in Australia and Amsterdam. She speaks English, Dutch, and Russian and lives in Europe. With a wide range of skills and talents, she has a kaleidoscopic approach to expression.

The ensemble: Lonelinoise

Contemporary music may initially seem inaccessible, academic, or even ugly, but behind the rough facade lie powerful emotions, messages, atmospheres, affects, and ideas. Like other music genres—and like life itself—it can be beautiful, sweet, and comforting, but also confrontational, rough, and mean. Lonelinoise finds it important to stick its neck out and continue exploring the unknown, occasionally dropping a musical bomb. Lonelinoise was founded in 2020 by trombonist Sebastiaan Kemner and Vincent van Wijk and aims to find various ways to convey the wild and wonderful sounds of modern music to its audience. Sebastiaan will mentor and lead the trombone choir, selecting all 15 trombonists from four different classes within the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.

Christiaan Richter & Bruckner 5

Christiaan earned his master’s degree in composition from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in 2014. His works are regularly performed; in 2018, George Benjamin conducted Richter’s acclaimed composition “Wendingen” with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO). Here, Christiaan demonstrates his mastery in incorporating and dosing influences, transforming them into a distinctly recognizable sound of his own. This is particularly evident in “2270,” also composed for the RCO, where he magnifies themes from Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, activating his imagination to reach entirely new personal insights. At such moments, he crafts his highly original (sound) world, subtly and perhaps imperceptibly drawing the listener in. Similarly, in his recent piano concerto “muTaTum,” where the music of jazz pianist Art Tatum, admired by Stravinsky and Rachmaninov, intertwines with Christiaan’s, creating entirely new structures as the foundation for a wholly original, individual, and standalone work.

Christiaan on his new composition

‘A few years ago, I observed that at the end of the famous final coda of Bruckner’s Fifth, the climax of the entire work, several additional measures should be inserted to sustain the tension longer. Here, Bruckner, in my opinion, too quickly moves to the triumphant and safe tonic, whereas in this work, he achieves a mastery and logic in form that is beyond reproach, simultaneously maintaining its more capricious and pronounced improvisational aspects, characteristic of the original versions of the Third and Fourth symphonies. Bruckner 5 is an imposing structure that challenges not only in craftsmanship but also in perseverance and vision. Numerous moments trigger compositional potential towards further possibilities, such as measure 315 of the finale, refined measures that anticipate Webern, Xenakis, Feldman, or the sudden and brutal contrasts at the beginning of the work!’

The ensemble: Camerata RCO

Orchestra, enjoying playing in small ensemble settings. Not only is the repertoire of a small ensemble different, but chamber music is also more personal and intimate. They have complete freedom in choosing repertoire, venues, and collaborators. For Camerata, Bruckner is both essential and integral. Firstly, because the members of Camerata regularly perform the traditional symphonies with the RCO, but also because Camerata collaborates with conductor Rolf Verbeek, who has arranged several Bruckner symphonies for the ensemble. The members of Camerata have worked with Christiaan on previous occasions; the RCO commissioned him twice for composition projects: with “2270” and “Wendingen.” Camerata RCO expressed immediate interest in collaborating with Christiaan for Bruckner Casco. Camerata RCO is eager to explore contemporary music and sees Bruckner Casco as the perfect opportunity as it bridges Bruckner with entirely new music.

Read more on brucknercasco.nl

The concert: