Van der Aa's Mask is revealed around Europe
(April 2007)
Michel van der Aa’s virtuosic new ensemble piece, Mask, has been heard in Cologne, Brussels and Amsterdam, with future dates set at the Venice Biennale (10 October) and in Porto (26 June 2008). The work was commissioned by Kunststiftung NRW, Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst and the Casa da Musica, Porto with premiere performances by musikFabrik conducted by Peter Rundel, the ASKO Ensemble with Clark Rundell and the Remix Ensemble under Reinbert de Leeuw.
As with van der Aa’s opera After Life and the orchestral work Second Self, the new score explores the composer’s fascination with shifting perspectives and multiple musical discourses. The Mask of the title refers to a second electronic layer created by real-time transformation of the music played by the instrumental ensemble. Both ‘face’ and ‘mask’ co-exist through the piece, but the drama comes when, as the composer describes, “sudden interruptions rip a hole in the texture, revealing previously concealed layers”.
“...an effective piece that, thanks to a build-up of small climaxes, moves towards a supreme moment, followed, like a coda, by a series of gradually thinning chords with dazzling harmonic spectra.” Volkskrant
“With Mask Michel van der Aa once again proves his craftsmanship... [He] succeeds in imbuing his music with a remarkably individual, purely emotional quality... clarity of form, maximum use of a small amount of material, and a keen sense of timing and effect...” De Telegraaf
Van der Aa is composing a new song cycle for mezzo-soprano, orchestra and soundtrack, commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France and the NDR Orchestra in Hamburg. The Dutch mezzo Christianne Stotijn will be the soloist at the work’s premiere during the 2008/2009 season.
> Further information on Work: Mask
Photo: Isabelle Vigier
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