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Holland Festival Proms: Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet, Tanya Tagaq

As far as string quartets go, it doesn’t get more adventurous than the world famous Kronos Quartet from San Francisco. The quartet, artists in residence at this year’s Holland Festival, will perform a special concert at the Holland Festival Proms, playing their greatest hits as well as new work commissioned as part of their Fifty for the Future project. The familiar repertoire includes work by Bryce Dessner (The National), Syrian singer Omar Souleyman and Terry Riley, as well as two compositions by Clint Mansell and Vladimir Martynov which were used in the films Requiem for a Dream and La Grande Bellezza. The programme will also feature a guest performance by the amazing Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq. She wrote a new piece for the Kronos Quartet, which will have its European premiere.

As far as string quartets go, it doesn’t get more adventurous than the world famous Kronos Quartet from San Francisco. The quartet, artists in residence at this year’s Holland Festival, will perform a special concert at the Holland Festival Proms, playing their greatest hits as well as new work commissioned as part of their Fifty for the Future project. The familiar repertoire includes work by Bryce Dessner (The National), Syrian singer Omar Souleyman and Terry Riley, as well as two compositions by Clint Mansell and Vladimir Martynov which were used in the films Requiem for a Dream and La Grande Bellezza. The programme will also feature a guest performance by the amazing Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq. She wrote a new piece for the Kronos Quartet, which will have its European premiere.

Omar Souleyman (1966) (arr. Jacob Garchik)

La Sidounak Sayyada (2014)**


Bryce Dessner (1976)

Aheym (Homeward) (2013)*


Pete Townshend (1945) (arr. Jacob Garchik)

Baba O’Riley (1993)**


Terry Riley (1935)

One Earth, One People, One Love (2002)*

uit Sun Rings


Clint Mansell (1963) (arr. David Lang)

Lux Aeterna **

uit Requiem for a Dream


Tanya Tagaq (1977)

NEW WORK (2016)* (Europese première)


Vladimir Martynov (1946)

The Beatitudes (1998)**


* written for Kronos Quartet ** arranged for Kronos Quartet Six concerts by world class artists in one day at the Concertgebouw, standing tickets for only 10 euros per concert, seating on the balconies and the stage. That is the Holland Festival Proms, the concerts held on the festival’s final weekend, hosted by Thomas van Luyn. Throughout the afternoon and evening, ensembles ranging from the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra to American singer-songwriter Ben Folds with yMusic, and from the Kronos Quartet to a Moroccan Gnawa ensemble will perform on stage. Opening with a family concert from the Netherlands, the programme will journey through different genres round the world to conclude with a Malian version by Terry Riley’s minimal masterpiece In C. And if you still can’t get enough, you can join our festive afterparty.

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dates

Sat June 25 2016 5:00 PM

information

  • Duration of performance unknown (geen pauze)

related

The world famous Kronos Quartet is artist in residence at this year's Holland Festival. The string quartet will offer an important contribution to the festival with a concert illustrating their adventurous repertoire and open mind. First up are several crossovers with pop music, such as Baba O‘Riley (1971), one of The Who's greatest hits and very possibly the first ever pop song inspired by minimalist music.

The world famous Kronos Quartet is artist in residence at this year's Holland Festival. The string quartet will offer an important contribution to the festival with a concert illustrating their adventurous repertoire and open mind. First up are several crossovers with pop music, such as Baba O‘Riley (1971), one of The Who's greatest hits and very possibly the first ever pop song inspired by minimalist music.

Also, many of the composers whose work is performed in this concert have a background in pop music, ranging from Bryce Dessner (the National) to Clint Mansell (former lead singer of Pop Will Eat Itself). The Kronos Quartet will also perform an arrangement of a wedding song by Omar Souleyman, king of Syrian techno. 

 

Another popular part of the Kronos Quartet's repertoire is film music that blends classical music and pop culture. The concert will feature two great hits from their film music collection: Vladimir Martynov's The Beatitudes (used in La Grande Belezza, 2014) and Clint Mansell's Lux Aeterna (which appeared on the soundtrack for Requiem for a Dream, 2000). Their spiritual titles fit in neatly with Terry Riley's serene One Earth, One People, One Love (2002). Written as part of Sun Rings, a collaboration between NASA and the Kronos Quartet, Riley's piece blends pre-recorded sounds from space with ethereal string harmonies.

 

The concert concludes with two composers who focus on their national identities and personal backgrounds in their music. The minimalist, expressive Aheym ('homebound') by New York composer Bryce Dessner deals with his background as a descendant of Jewish immigrants. Throat singer Tanya Tagaq champions the endangered Inuit culture in her music. She is one of the selected composers for Kronos' Fifty for the Future project, which they launched to give a new impulse to the contemporary string quartet. At the Holland Festival Proms, Tagaq (who will also give her own concert at the festival) will feature in the Kronos Quartet's European premiere performance of the piece she wrote for them.

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credits

music Bryce Dessner, Clint Mansell, Vladimir Martynov, Terry Riley, Omar Souleyman, Tanya Tagaq, Pete Townshend performance Hank Dutt, Sunny Yang, John Sherba lighting design Brian H. Scott sound Scott Fraser with the support of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation via USArtists International, National Endowment for the Arts, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

This performance is made possible by