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Tom Jenkinson is famous as Squarepusher for his rapid and unsettling beats. He is also a phenomenal bass player and has been fascinated by the organ from an early age. In this concert, he shares the stage with James McVinnie, who was an organist at Westminster Abbey, and is also a virtuoso performer of contemporary music. McVinnie has worked with composers like Nico Muhly and Oneohtrix Point Never (Holland Festival, 2014). The programme includes an earlier organ work Jenkinson wrote for McVinnie, as well as a piece written especially for this Proms concert: a duet for organ and bass guitar, in which Jenkinson is also playing. McVinnie also performs a rarely heard organ work by Philip Glass and an early work by organ giant Olivier Messiaen.

Tom Jenkinson (1975)

selection from: Solo Electric Bass 1

 

Tom Jenkinson (1975)

Space Frame Suite (2016)

 

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)

Le banquet céleste (1928)

 

Philip Glass (1937)

Mad Rush (1979)

 

Tom Jenkinson (1975)

new work (2017)

for electric bass and organ

worls premiere

 

From the brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen playing Karlheinz Stockhausen to an opera-installation by the Indonesian artist Jompet Kuswidananto. The day is being hosted by comedian and television presenter Klaas van der Eerden. In the intermissions there will be performances by conservatory students, as well as short introductions to the concerts. For only ten euros per concert – or less for those who buy a day pass – you can hear the latest and most adventurous music from around the world. There’s an afterparty that night for everyone who can’t get enough of it.

 

For a whole day, from noon until late at night, there will be a vibrant mini-festival in The Concertgebouw. The Holland Festival Proms consists of five concerts and an installation. From a concert with virtual reality to the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and the swinging music of The Nile Project.

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Over the last hundred years, avant-garde composers have been rediscovering the organ. In this concert, organist James McVinnie will be performing compositions by Olivier Messiaen, Philip Glass and Tom Jenkinson, the electronic dance pioneer more commonly known as Squarepusher.

Over the last hundred years, avant-garde composers have been rediscovering the organ. In this concert, organist James McVinnie will be performing compositions by Olivier Messiaen, Philip Glass and Tom Jenkinson, the electronic dance pioneer more commonly known as Squarepusher.

Two of Jenkinson's pieces will be performed in this concert. As a child, Jenkinson was fascinated by the organ, which he saw as a type of precursor to the synthesizer. He also believes that the physical impact of organ music has a great deal in common with the physical nature of dance music. Jenkinson often seeks inspiration from avant-garde composers for his experimental dance projects. This influence is reflected in these pieces for organ. Space Frame Suite (2016) comprises eight parts, in which the fast and complex rhythms that characterise Jenkinson's dance music are alternated with more static passages. Jenkinson mainly explores the organ's flute register. The concert will be concluded with the world premiere of a new work by Jenkinson for bass guitar and organ. It will be performed by McVinnie and  the composer, who has impressed audiences with  his bass guitar skills during performances as Squarepusher and in his band Shobaleader One.    

 

McVinnie and Jenkinson will also be performing Le banquet celeste (1928) by Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992). Messiaen is one of the most important organ composers of the last century. The French composer, who was the organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris for 61 years, was one of the most important teachers of post-war avant-garde music. Although Le banquet celeste is one of his earliest works, the main features of Messiaen's style are already noticeable. The extremely slow tempo and the static, impressionist chords are used to express the sublime experience of the Divine. Also on the programme is the work from another pioneer of twentieth-century music, Mad Rush (1973) by Philip Glass (1937). Glass, together with colleagues such as Terry Riley and Steve Reich, is considered one of the founders of minimal music. Just like in the rest of his oeuvre, repetitive structures also play an important role in Mad Rush.

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