Louis Andriessen Returns to the US

Thu, Oct 4 - Sun, May 5  2019

Louis Andriessen returns to the United States with new works. This fall, ten concerts (and counting) will be featuring his compositions including highly-anticipated world premieres by the New York Philharmonic and Dutch pianist Ralph van Baat. In May 2019 his “The only one” will debut in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA.

Louis Andriessen joins Jaap van Zweden and other Dutch artists at the New York Philharmonic for the World Premier of “Agamemnon” in “The World of Andriessen”, and a special Dutch ensemble in “Sound ON: Going Dutch.” Tickets for Louis Andriessen’s concerts are available at the New York Philharmonic website. For more information on Jaap van Zweden’s tenure at the New York Philharmonic and the Dutch artists featured, click here.

New York

The New York Philharmonic will present The Art of Andriessen, October 4–14, 2018, celebrating Music Director Jaap van Zweden’s Dutch compatriot Louis Andriessen, the third recipient of The Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music at the New York Philharmonic. The Art of Andriessen will feature the World Premiere of Louis Andriessen’s Agamemnon, commissioned upon his receipt of the Kravis Prize for New Music; Mr. Andriessen’s TAO; music by Mr. Andriessen, his students, and more on the Philharmonic’s two new-music series; the US Premiere of MUTED at National Sawdust; and The Juilliard School’s AXIOM ensemble performing Mr. Andriessen’s De Staat. 

“Louis Andriessen is one of my heroes and I am honored that he has written a piece for my first year with the New York Philharmonic, particularly because he has not written for orchestra for many years,” said Music Director Jaap van Zweden, who served on the 2016 Kravis Prize Selection Committee. “One of the most inspiring moments as a conductor is being able to talk to the composer, so I am especially glad that he will be with us for Agamemnon. And I’m very happy that this initial commission has grown into The Art of Andriessen, with a range of concerts that will highlight this great composer and his influences.”

• “The Art of Andriessen” | October 4-6, 2018 | David Geffen Hall

Music Director Jaap van Zweden will lead the World Premiere of Louis Andriessen’s Agamemnon, October 4–6, 2018, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic as part of the  Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music. The work is based on the story of the ancient Greek mythological character who sacrificed his daughter to the gods and, upon returning from leading the Greek forces in the Trojan War, was killed alongside his concubine by his unfaithful wife and her lover in revenge for his sacrifice of their daughter.

The program will also feature Debussy’s La Mer, Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto, with Leila Josefowicz as soloist, and Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1947 version). Louis Andriessen cites Stravinsky as one of his primary influences, saying “I cannot remember a time when I did not love the music of Stravinsky.” Scholars have noted the influence of Symphonies of Wind Instruments specifically on Mr. Andriessen’s music. Stravinsky, in turn, counted Debussy as a primary influence, and his Symphonies of Wind Instruments is dedicated to Debussy’s memory.

The New York Philharmonic will offer an allotment of free tickets to young people ages 13–26 for the concert on Friday, October 5 as part of Philharmonic Free Fridays.

• Sound ON: Going Dutch | October 7, 2018 | The Apple Room

“The Art of Andriessen” will inaugurate the GRoW @ Annenberg Sound ON series on October 7, 2018, with “Going Dutch.” The program will highlight the Netherlands new-music scene with music by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen and his former students: Louis Andriessen’s Image de Moreau, Hout, and Symphony for Open Strings, the last conducted by Music Director Jaap van Zweden; Dutch composer Martijn Padding’s Mordants; and the New York Premiere of The Key to the Fourteenth Visionby Vanessa Lann, an American composer living in the Netherlands.

The GRoW @ Annenberg Sound ON series — three Sunday afternoon chamber concerts at The Appel Room, Jazz at Lincoln Center — presents contemporary chamber repertoire performed by Philharmonic musicians. The concerts will dive deeper into the season’s key initiatives and explore the music of our time through the performer’s lens. Host and curator Nadia Sirota will lead conversations with the musicians, exploring what they love about the works they are performing — what is difficult, new, and unexpected.

• TAO | October 10-13, 2018 | David Geffen Hall

David Robertson will conduct the New York Philharmonic in Louis Andriessen’s TAO, with members of Synergy Vocals and Japanese-Dutch pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama in her Philharmonic debut, October 10 and 12–13, 2018. TAO was written for, dedicated to, and premiered by Ms. Mukaiyama; the work calls for her to perform on piano and a traditional Japanese koto, and to vocalize. TAO is the second part of Mr. Andriessen’s Trilogy of the Last Day, on the theme of mortality, and quotes the writings of ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu.

The program will also feature Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganani, with Garrick Ohlsson as soloist.

The New York Philharmonic will offer an allotment of free tickets to young people ages 13–26 for the concert on Friday, October 12 as part of Philharmonic Free Fridays.

• New York Philharmonic Co-Commission of MUTED Premiere with Violinist Monica Germino | October 8–9, 2018 | NATIONAL SAWDUST

Also as part of “The Art of Andriessen,” the New York Philharmonic and National Sawdust will co-present the US Premiere of MUTED — a Philharmonic co-commission with Rotterdam’s De Doelen, Oranjewoud Festival, Vancouver’s Music on Main, and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival — October 8–9, 2018, at National Sawdust. MUTED is a collective work by four composers — Louis Andriessen, Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe — created for violinist Monica Germino, Mr. Andriessen’s wife, following her diagnosis with high sensitivity to sound. Julia Wolfe counts Mr. Andriessen as one of her primary influences; Ms. Wolfe, Mr. Lang, and Mr. Andriessen are three of the five composers whose works are being commissioned and premiered by the New York Philharmonic, led by Jaap van Zweden, in the 2018–19 season.

Ms. Germino writes: “Michael Gordon’s response to what was drastic news to me — having to protect my hearing by stopping or adapting how I played the violin — was one of optimism and curiosity: ‘I’m going to write you a piece so soft, I don’t care if no one can hear it.’ Michael, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe decided to join forces to create MUTED, ‘the quietest violin piece ever written.’ The three later invited Louis Andriessen to join in the experiment, fulfilling a long-held wish to collaborate.”

Ms. Germino will perform on her violin as well as a whisperviolin, a lower-decibel violin created for her, and she will also sing settings of texts from 20th-century American humorist Don Marquis’s series of free-verse poems Archy and Mehitabel, set on the streets of New York. It is written for violin, voice, and light design and conceived for small groups of listeners in intimate spaces.

• Nightcap (curated by Andriessen) | October 13, 2018 | Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

• De Staat | October 14, 2018 | David Geffen Hall

• De Staat (by AXIOM of the Julliard School) | October 14, 2018 | Peter Jay Sharp Theater

As part of the New York Philharmonic’s The Art of Andriessen, The Juilliard School will present its AXIOM ensemble, led by Jeffrey Milarsky, in a free performance of Louis Andriessen’s De Staat, Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks, and Knussen’s Two Organa on October 14, 2018, at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Mr. Andriessen himself selected Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks to complement this performance of his De Staat. Robert Adlington’s book Louis Andriessen: De Staat notes that in the year De Staat was premiered, Mr. Andriessen was staging his Matthew Passion, which evokes Dumbarton Oaks. The New York Philharmonic gave the New York Premiere of De Staat in May 1986.

• Etude for Ralph van Raat (World Premiere) | October 24, 2018 | Weill Recital Hall
  > with Ralph van Raat, Dutch pianist

On October 24th, join Dutch pianist Ralph van Raat in his Carnegie Hall debut, where he will premiere a new work by Louis Andriessen and a never before published composition by Pierre Boulez. This will be a performance to remember.

Los Angeles 

• The only one (World Premiere)
  May 2-5, 2018 | Walt Disney Concert Hall
  with Nora Fischer, mezzo-soprano

Louis Andriessen

Louis Andriessen is widely regarded as the leading composer working in the Netherlands today and is a central figure in the international new music scene. From a background of jazz and avant-garde composition, Andriessen has evolved a style employing elemental harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic materials, heard in totally distinctive instrumentation.

His acknowledged admiration for Stravinsky is illustrated by a parallel vigor, clarity of expression, and acute ear for color. The range of Andriessen’s inspiration is wide, from the music of Charles Ives in “Anachronie I,” the art of Mondriaan in “De Stijl,” and medieval poetic visions in “Hadewijch,” to writings on shipbuilding and atomic theory in “De Materie.” He has tackled complex creative issues, exploring the relation between music and politics in “De Staat,” the nature of time and velocity in “De Tijd” and “De Snelheid,” and questions of mortality in “Trilogy of the Last Day.”

Andriessen held the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall and was awarded the Composer of the Year Award by Musical America in 2010.

Tickets

Single tickets to the October 4–6 and October 10–13 programs start at $31. Single tickets to the Nightcap performance are $25. Single tickets to the Sound ON performance are $45. Tickets to MUTED at National Sawdust are $35 and available at nationalsawdust.org/muted-monica-germino. (Ticket prices subject to change.) Tickets to The Juilliard School’s AXIOM performance are free and will be available September 20 at this link. Tickets to Open Rehearsals are $22. A limited number of $18 tickets for select concerts may be available for students within 10 days of the performance at nyphil.org/rush, or in person the day of; valid identification is required. The New York Philharmonic is offering an allotment of free tickets to young people ages 13–26 for the concerts Friday, October 5 and 12 as part of Philharmonic Free Fridays; learn more at nyphil.org/freefridays.

Tickets to the New York Philharmonic performances may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday; 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 5:00 p.m. Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the David Geffen Hall Box Office. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On performance evenings, the Box Office closes one-half hour after performance time; other evenings it closes at 6:00 p.m.