Festive occasions | Willem Wander van Nieuwkerk

november 2011 – While only recently music of mine was played at the opening concert of the Dutch Chamber Music Festival, another work of mine could shortly thereafter be heard at the Hoorn Chamber Music Festival, together with a first performance of a new work by another Dutch composer, my neo-romantic collegue Alexander Comitas, played by the beautifully Romantic Atlantic Trio of pianist Bas Verheijden…

festival-nederlandse-kamermuziek. Only shortly after Rosanne Philippens en Yuri van Nieuwkerk played my Dance Capriccio’s in the Dutch Chamber Music Festival, another recent work of mine was heard at another Dutch festival, the Hoorn Chamber Music Festival. On November 6 the Atlantic Trio played the first performance of ‘The Black Monk’, a new piano trio by Alexander Comitas, in a programme with my recent piano trio ‘De tout mon coeur’ – a concert programme that exclusively featured new Dutch music in the classical tradition and that they also intend to bring out on cd. Two Dutch composers, two new works!

I had been very much looking forward to the piece by Comitas, who is one of the few neo-Romantics in the Netherlands, a situation that has cost him dearly, as is witnessed by the following extremely embarrassing experiment.

The Atlantics are the ideal champions of this kind of aesthetic, as is shown by by their latest cd Traces of Brahms, that features music by Juon en Gernsheim and has been presented on November 10, 2011. Pianist Bas Verheijden’s deeply Romantic convictions are also testified by his own latest solo-cd ‘The Last Romantic’, that even contains two premières, including the unknown Préludes of Friedrich Gernsheim!

In his own words:

“‘The Last Romantic’ is a title accredited to a number of pianists like Horowitz, Bolet en Earl Wild when in the eyes of some they seemed to be the last of their generation. The programme on this cd is inspired by the kind of programmes that they played. An hommage to three pianists who strongly influenced my view of music making.”

For a contemporary Dutch composer it is an honour and a great experience to have such pianistic skills being put in his service.

About me

Musical beauty and simplicity are my aim. My guiding principle is the classical European tradition. Folk music, church music and Early Music are the sources to which I return to seek new melodic beauty. I value musical craftsmanship and intuition highly. Musicians are my first audience. It is their virtuosic interplay, comic or dramatic, but always emotionally charged, that is the musical theater my music presents to the listener. The sounds I cherish most are those that through the musician’s hearts, breath and hands bear the mark of their personal interpretation.
Chamber music is, therefore, central to me – I have written for the Bennewitz Quartet and Harry-Imre Dijkstra, the Skampa Quartet, Rosanne Philippens, the Bartók Trio, the Utrecht String Quartet and many others.
My chamber music for recorders has a special place in my work and is played in large numbers by amateurs. The CD Kadanza is a fruit of decades of collaboration with the best professionals who were often also the best teachers.
For me, choral music is also a species of chamber music. It should challenge and offer musical satisfaction to those many amateur singers – that I am one of.

My music features individual performers – to convey a thought, an emotion, and a story to the audience in a virtuoso and intense fashion.

In rehearsal and performance, the performers and I learn a lot from each other. Sometimes their improvisations are included in the musical story. Scores will always be adapted to their needs.

The interplay between performer and composer is absolutely essential in newly written music. As is the interplay between sponsor and composer.

Would you like me to rehearse with you or do you want to know more about a piece?

Do you want me to write a piece for a particular line-up or event?

Please let me know and I will contact you.

Besides composing, I lecture in New Music at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, with a focus on chamber music and music aesthetics. Some of the writing and thinking that I do there can be found in the ‘text’ section.