Smoky tunes
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Thu 27 Nov 202520:15 - 21:20Grote Zaal
Program
19.15 / Foyerdeck 1 / Pre-concert talk
By Frederike Berntsen
20.15 / Grote Zaal / Main program
David Lang standards (world premiere)
Credits
Claron McFadden soprano
Cello Octet Amsterdam:
Rares Mihailescu cello
Claire Bleumer cello
Geneviève Verhage cello
Esther Torrenga cello
René van Munster cello
Sanne van der Horst cello
Sanne Bijker cello
Alistair Sung cello
David Lang writes ‘smoky tunes’ from vanished nightclubs for Cello Octet Amsterdam and the fantastic soprano Claron McFadden. A world premiere by this top composer, inspired by old recordings of Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan who sang about the sorrows of love. David Lang’s texts draw upon the passionate love songs of Guillaume de Machaut, the 14th-century poet and composer who captured the same intensity of longing that centuries later would later be expressed in jazz standards.
The way old love songs keep touching us is similar to how standards work in jazz. Every singer makes their own version and thus brings out a slightly different meaning of the song. ‘All versions are in dialogue with each other and deepen the meaning of all the others’, says David Lang. Claron McFadden is one of the few singers who masters both early and contemporary music and jazz. Her unique ability to bridge diverse musical traditions shines through in David Lang’s new incarnations of these old smoky tunes.
Programme booklet
