Program ­ notes Andriessen ­ Festival

Afternoon program

• Part 2 – 14:00-14:40 – Musis Balkonzaal
Katharina Gross, solo cello

Erika Vega - Rarámuri

The Tarahumara (who call themselves “Rarámuri”) are a group of indigenous peoples in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, famous for their long-distance running. Rarámuri means “those who run fast.” Erika Vega’s piece is a non-stop narrative of endurance running. A continuous pulse characterizes the entire work. Through contrasts in timbre, textures, and bowing techniques, multiple layers emerge that play with the listener’s perspective. 

Cecilia Arditto Delsoglio - Inside 

In Inside, a solo piece for cello by Cecilia Arditto Delsoglio, the cello is rediscovered in a personal way. Organology (the acoustic study of how musical instruments produce sound) goes hand in hand with the creative exploration of sonic possibilities and playing techniques. The extensive techniques focus on how new timbres alter the experience of music, thereby evolving into sophisticated listening techniques. 

 Kate Moore - Suite voor cello solo 

The Suite for solo cello by Australian-Dutch composer Kate Moore expresses every facet of human emotion. Paul Janssen writes in Luister Magazin (cellomondo #4-Inside, CD of the week): "She manages to combine a moving, earthy primal lyricism with pure instrumental poetry, while at the same time the world of Bach’s cello suites seems not far away. Delicate melodies, sometimes combined with a plucking accompaniment and tentative chord breaks, create a dream world for twenty minutes in which it is enchantingly pleasant to dwell. All of this, of course, is thanks in part to Katharina Gross’s focused and loving performance.”

Gerhard Stäbler - Georg Büchner

Georg Büchner incorporated his thoughts on social developments and the struggle against oppression into his play Danton’s Death. In his Capricci I–V for solo cello, Gerhard Stäbler incorporates text excerpts from Büchner’s drama and refers to the current threat to freedom and humanism posed by transhumanism. But: just as in Büchner’s time, there will also be a “tomorrow” when humans will once again be respected as human beings rather than as “human resources.”

• Part 3 – 15:00-16:15 – Musis Parkzaal
Dawn Hardwick, piano & John Psathas, composition & video

John Psathas - Voices at the End

Voices at the End explores a new live format by combining the emotional and excitement of virtuosic musical performance with a cinematic soundtrack, and stunning film and projected text. The show consists of two audio-visual works;

• Second-Hand Time (25m) - inspired by and integrating the words of Adam Curtis, Henry A. Giroux, Brad Evans, Svetlana Alexievich, and Noam Chomsky.
• Voices at the End (40m) - inspired by the film Planetary and by environmental activist Joanna Macy

Voices at the End is an urgent commentary on issues facing the world, merging Dawn Hardwick’s piano virtuosity with the words of Henry Giroux and Brad Evans, the music of John Psathas, Moxina, and Name UL, and the work of film-artist Kenyon Shankie. Precisely synced, these threads weave together to provoke discomfort, command attention, and radiate hope. It is both a slap-in-the-face wake-up call, and a desperate cry for solidarity toward an energized and collaborative response to our situation.

• Deel 4 – 16:30-17:40 – Musis Balkonzaal 
Luna Quartet with Vincent van Amsterdam, accordeon

Christiaan Richter - ‘Afbuig’-trilogy

Richter's 'Afbuig'-trilogy consists of three works that were written especially for accordionist Vincent van Amsterdam and the Luna Quartet.

The virtuoso accordion solo piece Afbuigingsjuk (2019) is titled after a component of an old CRT television – the so-called "deflection yoke" – which distributes the light beam produced by the electron gun at the back of the TV across the screen. If this component stops working, only a single very bright white dot remains in the center of the screen. While writing the piece, Richter associated this strong visual memory with the intense and highly focused playing of saxophonist John Coltrane in his late period, like a single concentrated beam of energy. A further guideline for the piece is the counterpoint found in J.S. Bach's cantatas, and in particular the co-existence of multiple layers, as in a combination of slow-moving layers, such as chorale melodies or longer held dissonances, with faster instrumental patterns.

Subsequently, based on ideas found in this piece, two different pieces for accordion and string quartet were written. Firstly, the line is continued and reflected in Afspiegelbreuk (2023), which mirrors, as it were, the final episode or apotheosis of Afbuigingsjuk. Just as a ray of light is deflected in a prism, and a spectrum of different colors can be observed through the refraction of light, Afspiegelbreuk exposes subtle gradations of tension and color within a range of diverse harmonies.

In Aftaktiel (2025), this same concept is combined with other principles from Afbuigingsjuk, such as the previously mentioned multilayered writing, but also forms of agility and physicality. Thus, in this piece, further deflections, combinations, and interactions form branches ("aftakkingen" in Dutch) and "tangible" explorations ("tactile" is "taktiel" in Dutch) stemming from the earlier works.

Evening program

 Yeji Kim - The Shoe Shop Man

The Shoe Shop Man is inspired by the daily routine of my grandfather in 1970s Korea, a shoemaker and a devoted Christian. The piece follows a succession of gestures related to prayer, movement between different spaces, and work. The piece unfolds from morning to afternoon, as if these scenes were perceived through a kind of sonic film. Life situations are reconstructed through various sonic landscapes, derived from the computer analysis and transformation of gestures, machines, and everyday contexts. Most parameters are designed to reveal an underlying autobiographical dimension, where each sound element carries a trace of daily life.

Tadeusz Wielecki -  Rhetorical Music

In this piece, the soprano narrates a specific story in such a way that she merely begins to express a thought, but passes its essential content on to the orchestra. It is this purely instrumental music (enriched in two passages by a vocal part as an additional instrument) that constitutes the actual message hinted at by the soprano’s words, and it is the wordless music that “reveals” the most essential content, which might not be expressible in words.

Songs without words are, of course, nothing new in the history of music, yet Rhetorical Music is not about the poetic metaphor of what is said; rather it is about specific meanings evoked by the soloist’s words and introduced into music, which in that non-obvious, quizzical way becomes imbued with meaning.

Louis Andriessen (arr. Janco Verduin) - De Staat

I wrote De Staat (The Republic) as a contribution to the debate about the relation of music to politics. Many composers view the act of composing as, somehow, above social conditioning. I contest that. How you arrange your musical material, the techniques you use and the instruments you score for, are largely determined by your own social circumstances and listening experience, and the availability of financial support. I do agree, though, that abstract musical material - pitch, duration and rhythm - are beyond social conditioning: it is found in nature. However, the moment the musical material is ordered it becomes culture and hence a social entity.

I have used passages from Plato to illustrate these points. His text is politically controversial, if not downright negative: everyone can see the absurdity of Plato's statement that the mixolydian mode should be banned as it would have a damaging influence on the development of character.

My second reason for writing De Staat is a direct contradiction of the first: I deplore the fact that Plato was wrong. If only it were true that musical innovation could change the laws of the State!

Louis Andriessen, 1994 Source: Boosey & Hawkes, 2026.