Calefax + Mohammad Motamedi (photo Eric van Nieuwland)

Song of the Reed

Calefax + Mohammad Motamedi
Thu 21 Nov 2024 20:15 - 22:00
Thu 21 Nov 2024
20:15 - 22:00
  • Thu 21 Nov 2024
    20:15 - 22:00
    Grote Zaal

Program

19.15 / Foyerdeck 1 / Pre-concert talk

20.15 / Grote Zaal / Main programme
Iranian songs
Claude Debussy Syrinx
Duke Ellington Isfahan
Heinrich Isaac Innsbruck, ich muss' dich lassen
Works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, and others

Credits

Calefax:
Oliver Boekhoorn oboe
Bart de Kater clarinet
Raaf Hekkema saxophone
Jelte Althuis bass clarinet
Alban Wesly bassoon

Mohammad Motamedi vocals
Pouriya Jaberi percussion

Homesickness expressed in Iranian songs and instrumental classical music

In Song of the Reed, the Calefax reed quintet meets one of Iran’s most famous singers, Mohammad Motamedi. Together, the musicians present a cross-pollination of traditional Iranian songs and instrumental classical music. Centuries-old Persian poetry serves as a wellspring of inspiration for Iranian songs. Motamedi excels in the art of weaving graceful melodies around these verses.

The programme is about the feeling of homesickness for the place one comes from. Song of the Reed is a poem of the same name by 13th-century mystic poet Rumi, which describes the pain of those who are cut off from their home, like a reed cut from its reed bed.