Christian Marclay at the Holland Festival

Christian Marclay, the Swiss-American collagist and composer, is in Amsterdam to perform his latest work, Everyday. With Marclay utilising the turntables and electronics with which he made his name – Marclay has a claim to being the first musician to improvise with records and turntables – Everyday features him performing alongside his jazz ensemble, comprising Steve Beresford on piano, John Butcher on saxophone, Alan Tomlinson on trombone, and Mark Sanders on percussion. With a montage of hundreds of found film clips projected, conjoined, and narrowed onto a big screen, these images serve as a score for the musicians, who read and interpret them for their performance through a series of movements and audio-visual sequences. Everyday will be performed tomorrow evening at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, as part of the Holland Festival.

Marclay’s previous work, The Clock, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale 2011. Tonight, as a sort of preface to Everyday, EYE (the Dutch Film Institute) and the Holland Festival show three of Marclay’s earlier projects, all of which also draw upon found footage, film and improvised music.

The Bell and the Glass (2003) brings together the Liberty Bell, the symbol of American independence located in Philadelphia, and Marcel Duchamp’s The Large Glass (also called The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even), the artwork which he completed in 1923, and which is in the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. With video relating to these two pieces projected onto two screens, musicians improvise regarding the videos as a score. In Screen Play (2005), black-and-white footage provides the background for coloured, musically-inspired computer-animation. Shuffle (2007) is a sort of musical card game which suggests the musicality of everyday life, using photographs which imply the elements of musical notation to spur improvisation. For the performance at EYE, the MAZE ensemble will play to Marclay’s visuals.

Everyday will feature at the Muziekgebouw tomorrow at 8.30 pm. The three works by Marclay at EYE will be shown and performed from 8.30 pm this evening; with Marclay being interviewed in the foyer from 7.30 pm. More information is here and here.

Le Sacre du printemps at the Muziektheater

Het Nationale Ballet, the Dutch National Ballet company, will debut this evening at the Muziektheater a new performance of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps (‘The Rite of Spring‘). This new version of Stravinsky’s ballet – in the centenary year of its notorious premiere in Paris in 1913; and showing as part of the Holland Festival – has been choreographed by the Chinese-born choreographer Shen Wei.

Shen Wei received the Nijinsky Award for Emerging Choreographer in 2004, and his choreography has been commissioned by ballet companies, museums, arts venues and events worldwide. He choreographed the ‘Scroll’ segment of the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. His collaboration with Het Nationale Ballet marks his second interpretation of Le Sacre du printemps, having first choreographed the ballet in 2003. Shen Wei’s art is characterised by his interdisciplinary, multimedia-based approach to performance, and his drawing upon elements of Western and Asiatic culture. He has been described as ‘combining Chinese calli­graphy with the language of modern dance’; while Shen Wei himself stresses the primacy of the human body in his work.

I wrote recently a piece on Le Sacre du printemps, considering the long history of Russian culture throughout the 19th Century, its particular engagements with Asiatic art and concepts of the East, and how these influenced the development of the ballet through Stravinsky, the Ballets Russes, and the artist Nicholas Roerich. The piece is entitled ‘The Scythians and The Rite of Spring‘ and is here.

Het Nationale Ballet will perform six times over the next week at the Muziektheater. More information and tickets are at: http://www.hollandfestival.nl/en/program/2013/sacre-du-printemps-overture/

Brooklyn to Berlin: Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop and Lee Ranaldo

The string ensemble Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop will play with guitarist Lee Ranaldo, of Sonic Youth, for a one-off performance this evening as part of the Holland Festival. At the Muziekgebouw, and entitled ‘Brooklyn to Berlin’, Ranaldo will interweave with the ensemble to perform Charles Avison’s Concerto grosso nr. 3, d-moll (1744), Sebastian Claren’s Licht a capella (2011), Julia Wolfe’s Fuel (2007), and a new composition of his own.

Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop are a young ensemble based in Berlin, who have frequently collaborated with artists from other disciplines in an endeavour to experiment with the way in which string ensembles appear on stage. They often play drawing upon aspects of performance art, and utilising props and other visuals. As the name suggests, all members of the ensemble also operate as soloists. Claren, a German composer and musicologist, wrote Licht a capella especially for the Kaleidoskop.

Ranaldo will play guitar and sing in performing the world premiere of his new score, written in the tradition of the concerto grosso – a Baroque form of music which involves the interplay of material between full orchestral groups and smaller groups of soloists. The English composer Charles Avison’s piece will serve to complement and as a counterpoint to Ranaldo’s composition.

The concert will begin at 8.30 pm. It will be preceded from 7.45 pm with an introduction by Jacqueline Oskamp; and there will be the opportunity after the performance to meet the artists. More information is at: http://www.hollandfestival.nl/en/program/2013/brooklyn-to-berlin/

Desdemona: Music Theatre by Toni Morrison, Peter Sellars, and Rokia Traoré

Desdemona, a music theatre production based on Shakespeare’s Othello, will open tonight in Amsterdam at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ.

Premiering in Vienna in May 2011, before touring London, New York, and Berkeley, Desdemona is borne of a collaboration between the novelist Toni Morrison and the director Peter Sellars, noted for his boldly contemporary stagings of operas and plays. After Sellars produced a four-hour-long, futuristic version of Othello in 2009, to mixed reviews, he and Morrison began discussing a response to Shakespeare’s tragedy. Morrison – whose first novel, The Bluest Eye, appeared in 1970; and who has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, in 1988 for Beloved, and the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1993 – wrote a text which gives the perspective of Desdemona, Othello’s wife, from beyond the grave, after she has been suffocated by her husband.

Desdemona appears in intimate dialogue with Barbary – an extension of the character of Barbara in Shakespeare’s play, who is mentioned briefly in Act 4 Scene 3 as Desdemona’s nursemaid. The role of Barbary is performed by the Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traoré, who has won significant acclaim for her stage presence and vocal range.

Desdemona will show at the Muziekgebouw from 8.30 pm over the next three evenings, as part of the Holland Festival. More information and tickets are here: http://www.hollandfestival.nl/en/program/2013/desdemona/

Music This Weekend in Amsterdam (07-09.06.13)

Friday

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Paradiso: Meschiya Lake – 8 pm (Great Hall); Marnie Stern – 8 pm (Small Hall); Current Swell – 10 pm (Small Hall); Osi Darap – 11 pm

Melkweg: Major League @ klinch – 11 pm (The Max); DASH @ klinch – 11 pm (Old Hall)

Trouw: Ryan Hemsworth – 9 pm; Colors 3 Year Anniversary (Malawi Soundsystem, Skream, etc.) – 11 pm

OT301: Basserk Records (Deon Custom & Jameszoo) – 11 pm

OCCII: Gewapend Beton – 9 pm

Sugar Factory: A trip to SpaceAgePoetry – 9 pm

Ziggo Dome: Alicia Keys – 8 pm

Winston: Stuart O’Connor + Amour Bitches + Coco – 9 pm

The Sand: Keyshia Cole – 10.30 pm

North Sea Jazz Club: Friday Night Out: Ruben Hein & The Fresh Cuts – 6 pm; Late Night Live – 11.30 pm

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Saturday

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Paradiso: The Zombies – 7.30 pm (Great Hall); Serious Talent on Tour – 8 pm (Small Hall); Fuzed – 11.30 pm

Melkweg: HELEMAAL MELKWEG (with Lilian Hak, Gnučči, Pete Philly, etc.) – from 7 pm

De Nieuwe Anita: DimDamDom – 9.30 pm

Trouw: Ratio? – 11 pm

OT301: Basement Radio: Contrast – 10 pm

Sugar Factory: Black Light District – 11.30 pm

Ziggo Dome: Toto – 8 pm

Winston: Farris + Dakota + The Absent Friends – 9 pm

Concertgebouw: John Adams: The Gospel According to the Other Mary – 1.30 pm (Great Hall)

Bimhuis: James Dillon: Nine Rivers – 5 pm

North Sea Jazz Club: Gatecrash – 9 pm; Late Night Live – 11.30 pm

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Sunday

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Paradiso: Rollerdisco – 7 pm; Mrs. Smit & The Boys from Brasil – 8 pm (Small Hall)

Melkweg: The Veils – 8 pm (Old Hall)

Sugar Factory: Wicked Jazz Sounds Club Night – 11 pm

Winston: Sneeky Sunday – 10 pm

Bimhuis: VPRO Boy Edgar Prize – 8.30 pm

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Operatic, theatrical and performance-based events continue at these and other venues as part of the Holland Festival.

Hildur Guðnadóttir: Leyfðu Ljósinu at the Bimhuis

Hildur Guðnadóttir is a classically trained Icelandic cellist, who has worked on a wide array of contemporary music projects. Talented with a variety of instruments, including harp and viol, she frequently plays utilising vocal loops, effects pedals and electronics; she has toured with Animal Collective, and collaborated with Múm, Nico Muhly, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Pan Sonic, and The Knife amongst others; and, aside from arranging choral pieces and composing scores for plays, has released three solo albums.

The first, Mount A, was released in 2006 under the name Lost in Hildurness. It was recorded in New York and in a house in Hólar, in the north of Iceland, specifically chosen for its acoustic qualities; and demonstrates Guðnadóttir piecing together compositions from her own diverse playing. Signing with Touch – the London-based record label that host artists including Fennesz, Oren Ambarchi, and Stephan Mathieu – Guðnadóttir’s second album, Without Sinking, was released in 2009; with Mount A reissued by the label a year later. Last year’s Leyfðu Ljósinu was recorded at the Music Research Centre of the University of York, in one take and with little post-production; featuring Guðnadóttir’s cello and looped voice, the title track expands across thirty-five minutes.

Guðnadóttir will play at the Bimhuis tonight from 8.30 pm, as part of the Holland Festival. She will play Leyfðu Ljósinu in full, plus two new compositions using specially crafted electronic cellos. More information is at: http://www.hollandfestival.nl/en/program/2013/hildur-gu%C3%B0nad%C3%B3ttir/

Holland Festival 2013

The Holland Festival has, since 1947, served as a premier international event for the performing arts. With a focus on theatre, music theatre, dance, opera, and music, the festival – under artistic director Pierre Audi since 2005 – hosts both established and experimental artists in Amsterdam’s major cultural venues; centring on the Stadsschouwburg, the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, and the Frascati theatre, and also including the Bimhuis, Concertgebouw, Muziektheater, Koninklijk Theater Carré, and Westergasfabriek, with a couple of events even taking place in the Stedelijk and the Rijksmuseum. Fifty productions will show in over a hundred performances throughout the month of June.

The festival will commence tonight with an opera by Luca Francesconi entitled Quartett, based on Heiner Müller’s stage version of Les Liaisons dangereuses. Francesconi studied at the Milan Conservatory, and is a student of Stockhausen; his opera premiered in Milan in 2011, and will show at the Westergasfabriek at 8.30 pm on Saturday and Sunday.

The festival will continue on with an interview with author David Mitchell; who has collaborated with Michel van der Aa on a new multimedia opera for the festival, titled Sunken Garden. There will be two performances at the Stadsschouwburg by Benjamin Millepied’s L.A. Dance Project, including a new piece choreographed by Millepied himself. De Nederlandse Opera will partake in seven performances of Wagner’s lengthy comic opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Hildur Guðnadóttir, an Icelandic cellist with a penchant for experimental popular music, will play two pieces at the Bimhuis. Toni Morrison has written a new work for music theatre, entitled Desdemona, based on Shakespeare’s Othello. Toneelgroep Amsterdam will be directed by Thomas Ostermeier, in the director’s first engagement with Chekhov’s The Seagull.

The Berlin string ensemble Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop will be joined in performance by Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo. Chinese-born choreographer Shen Wei has produced, with Het Nationale Ballet, a new version of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring – a celebration of that work’s centenary year. A multidisciplinary exhibit by South African director Brett Bailey will utilise the concept of ‘human zoos’ to view the West’s relationship with Africa. The collagist Christian Marclay will show a new work called Everyday, which will comprise a film montage with a soundtrack improvised via turntables and electronics.

The Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic will perform four pieces on the theme of light on 21 June, the longest day of the year. A series of free lunchtime concerts will take place in the Rijksmuseum.

Holland Festival 2013’s website, with a full programme of performances and ticketing information, is at: http://www.hollandfestival.nl/en/