For Theo Loevendie, composing is not about writing music but rather about making music. His background as a performing musician and improviser is always evident to the listener, not only in jazz-related works such as Laps but also in his operas and works for ensemble. It takes practical experience to successfully unite Haydnesque features with musical principles from the Middle East and Africa. Loevendie was already displaying this same openness and playfulness more than thirty years ago in Six Turkish folk poems, which has since become a classic of the modern repertoire. During the same period he composed music to De nachtegaal (The nightingale), another irresistible piece, certainly in the new version of Andersen’s fairy tale revised by Kees van Kooten. During the succeeding three decades Loevendie (who turns 80 this year) lost none of his artistic energy. Composed in 2008, The liberator is among his most recent works: a mini-opera about the anti-slavery activist William Garrison, which will be given its première here in the Netherlands.

Artists

THEO LOEVENDIE
Laps
Six Turkish Folkpoems
The Liberator 
De dag- en nachtegaal

ASKO|SCHÖNBERG
conductor
Reinbert de Leeuw
narrator
Kees van Kooten
soprano
Charlotte Riedijk
baritone
Frans Fiselier
direction
Ira Judkovskaja