The Treasure Hunt with Bas Wiegers

I speak about Charles Ives with the great Ives connoisseur Thomas Brodhead, whom I got to know when we worked on Ives’ Fourth Symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra back in 2012. Ives is such a fascinating composer and has been a constant inspiration in my life as a musician. At the moment, I’m preparing his piece Three Places in New England, which I get to conduct for the first time.    Links to the pieces:    Charles Ives: Country Band March  President's Own United States Marine Band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avowzDI8uR0 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avowzDI8uR0]   Charles Ives (orch. T. Grahl, 2021): Walt Whitman - (1921) from 114 Songs Klangforum Wien, Thomas Hampson, Bas Wiegers  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqnO8dJJPYs [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqnO8dJJPYs]   Charles Ives: Fourth Symphony  Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Peter Eötvös, Bas Wiegers, Ralph van Raat Private recording    Charles Ives: March No. 6 for Piano, with Here's to Good Old Yale Charles Ives, piano  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMW0r_ZxFm8&list=OLAK5uy_lE6Eb6U39_HOe_juxz9dJukRFRewUz3xs&index=41 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMW0r_ZxFm8&list=OLAK5uy_lE6Eb6U39_HOe_juxz9dJukRFRewUz3xs&index=41]   Charles Ives: Three Places In New England - 1. The "St. Gaudens" In Boston Common Boston Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhbutHpwEh8 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhbutHpwEh8]   Charles Ives: They Are There!, second take Charles Ives, piano  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az0iNeRvNts&list=OLAK5uy_lE6Eb6U39_HOe_juxz9dJukRFRewUz3xs&index=39 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az0iNeRvNts&list=OLAK5uy_lE6Eb6U39_HOe_juxz9dJukRFRewUz3xs&index=39]   Charles Ives: Four Transcriptions from Emerson: No. 1 (beg.) Charles Ives, piano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c8lNFR5xWw&list=OLAK5uy_lE6Eb6U39_HOe_juxz9dJukRFRewUz3xs&index=1 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c8lNFR5xWw&list=OLAK5uy_lE6Eb6U39_HOe_juxz9dJukRFRewUz3xs&index=1]   Charles Ives: Three Places In New England - 2. Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut Boston Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Ytm0l0FTU [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Ytm0l0FTU]   Charles Ives: The Unanswered Question  Ricciotti Ensemble, Leonard van Goudoever Private Recording

Today I'm spending some time with the 93 year old Theo Loevendie, one of the first living composers I worked with as a student. I'm coming back to his music after 25 years, to prepare two concerts with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. We speak about his youth, his influences, and about the two works I'm preparing: Flexio for orchestra and Six Turkish Folk Poems for singer and orchestra.   Here's info about the music you hear:    Draaiorgel Sarie Marais - Appeltjes van Oranje   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgOlWzqXXnY   Glenn Miller - American Patrol  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAVejLjXVdw   Umm Kulthum - 1967, Live at the Olympia, Paris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPGHpBOt5sE   Theo Loevendie - Six Turkish Folk Poems   Dorothy Dorow, soprano  Residentie Orkest  Ernest Bour, conductor  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU4090D14hs   Theo Loevendie - Flexio  Residentie Orkest  Peter Eötvös, conductor  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYxMTfeEbFQ&t=412s   Theo Loevendie - Venus and Adonis  Insomnio:   Carlos Galvez, bass clarinet  Bas Wiegers, violin  Martine Sikkenk, mandolin  Reinhold Westerheide, guitar  Ulrich Pöhl, percussion  (private recording)    Photo Loevendie: Teo Krijgsman

I have a chat with Rebecca Saunders, who works very closely with musicians to find the sounds she loves. We speak about the new piece (Skull) which we have just premiered at the Achtbrücken Festival, but also about other pieces and musicians who have inspired her.    I’ve woven small fragments of her music into the episode. If you want to have a proper listen to the entire pieces, the links are below.    YES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtuJLKb0Vwc [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtuJLKb0Vwc] Ensemble Musikfabrik, Juliet Fraser, Enno Poppe   DUST https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA2P7PQp0OU [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA2P7PQp0OU] Dirk Rothbrust, percussion    SKIN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkdODcg2Fmw [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkdODcg2Fmw] Klangforum Wien, Juliet Fraser, Bas Wiegers   SCAR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BriQ35IrGxA [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BriQ35IrGxA] Klangforum Wien, Julien Leroy

For this episode, I spoke with Johanna Zimmer, a wonderful soprano I had the joy of working with many times. She works as a soloist, as a chamber musician, in the choir, in opera. We speak about this versatility and why she needs it in her life. We speak about words in music and how important they are for us as musicians. At the moment, we are working with the SWR Vokalensemble on a program with music by Ligeti, Feldman and Orlando di Lasso.    The music you hear, is:    György Ligeti - Three Fantasies: Wenn aus der Ferne  SWR Vokalensemble, Yuval Weinberg  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvJzdYziCic [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvJzdYziCic]   Morton Feldman - Rothko Chapel  SWR Vokalensemble, Marcus Creed  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGQe3NsuvfM&t=636s [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGQe3NsuvfM&t=636s]   Orlando di Lasso - Lagrime di San Pietro: il magnanimo Pietro  Ensemble Vocal Européen, Philippe Herreweghe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeHZQ83oFQM [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeHZQ83oFQM]   Franz Tunder - Ach Herr, lass deine lieben Engelein Johanna Zimmer, Ensemble with Fabian Wöhrle, continuo

For this episode, I spoke with Enno Poppe. At the moment of recording, I am doing his piece Speicher with Klangforum Wien. We speak about deciding what ideas you want to put in a piece, Enno's love of idiomatic material and his close relationship to players, which is so important for the way he writes. We speak about the different roles we can have: in the case of Enno, he is not only a composer, but also a conductor, a player, and, of course, also sometimes audience. How does his persona change when his role changes? Is a conductor a different person?  The music you hear is:   Enno Poppe - Speicher (Klangforum Wien, Enno Poppe)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR_43dJWjFw [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR_43dJWjFw]   Enno Poppe - Augen (Sara Maria Sun, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Bas Wiegers)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkiG3uWah1s [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkiG3uWah1s]