NEWS
The summer break approaches and so it's time for a brief review and preview. This was the spring of the festivals: from the Nederlandse Muziekdagen and the Swedish Early Music Festival to the Chamber Opera Festival in Zwolle and the recent highly successful first ever Festival Classique in The Hague, which featured a repeat performance of the Zomerreis song cycle, the now well-known Dutch ‘re-translation' of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin by Jan Rot [whose Mattheuspassie, in which Marcel Beekman sings the role of the Evangelist, came second amongst eight CD productions nominated for the Edison Public's Choice Award 2007].
Marcel Beekman as Germanico in Biber's “Arminio”, Chamber Opera Festival Zwolle
photo: Hans Speekenbrink
Recent months have seen performances of a remarkable amount of home-grown music, by composers such as Christian Ernst Graaf [ Der Tod Jesu ], Willem Nicolaï [ Bonifacius ], André Arends [ Voices ], Julius Röntgen [ Aus Goethes Faust , including a CD recording, due to appear next season on the German CPO label], Martijn Padding [ And trees would sing for tenor and trombone quartet, released in May on a CD from the New Trombone Collective: see RECORDINGS for further information] and Jacques Beers. Two song cycles by Beers, Chants de métiers and Oud-Nederlandsche Liederen , have been recorded by Marcel Beekman and his accompanist Marcel Worms on a CD due to appear later in the year on the Attacca label, as part of an initiative of musicologist Jurjen Vis, in which instrumental chamber music as well as vocal music will be recorded.
A new CD with songs by Jacques Beers [1902-1947] will be released winter 2007
As regards the 2007/2008 season, there are performances scheduled in festivals and concert series such as the Early Music Festival in Utrecht, the Festival de Musique Baroque de Pontoise, the NPS Saturday Matinée in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the BOZAR series in Brussels, and the season will also include appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, where Marcel Beekman will make his début, in Bach's St.Matthew Passion , conducted by Iván Fischer, with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging [a Haydn tour with conductor Jos van Veldhoven and a Monteverdi tour with Rinaldo Alessandrini], with the Residentie Orkest, the Brabants Orkest, the Bochumer Symphoniker and Il Fondamento. And finally, there are plans for a CD recording of works by Schütz, Buxtehude and Bach.
Please consult the AGENDA for all further information. Reactions can be sent to Sorek Artists Management [see CONTACT] or directly to marcelbeekman@orange.nl
Marcel Beekman [July 2007]