From 15 to 18 February, AMUZ shone its spotlights on this trendy outsider of the contemporary music scene during POST-CLASSICAL MUSICinPRIMETIME. The programme could be described as a refreshing dive into the repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries. Minimalist, postmodern music, consonant and melodious from a new generation of composer-musicians.
Thursday evening featured compositions by Max Richter (1966), Dustin O'Halloran (1971), Nils Frahm (1982), Ólafur Arnalds (1986) and Jef Neve. Over the past years they have pursued a notable and lauded path and all stand for something new. Their classical training is the basis, but this eclectic generation with an inexhaustible reservoir of tools and imagination reconceptualises musical parameters and the general public loves it. They continue to push boundaries and constantly try new formal structures. In their artistic practice they make the connection between tradition and technology. With their own script and refined personal sound, Nils Frahm even appears in the Ultratop with his latest album All Melody. It's fantastic what that man can do with a piano, but also with sampling. He is currently on a European tour which includes three sold-out Belgian concerts (this summer he can still be heard at the Cactus and Dour festivals).
Jef Neve
Jef Neve, who turned 40 last year and is a contemporary of the aforementioned composers, is a particularly virtuoso pianist. He was asked by programmer Robin Steins for this programme because the piano plays a prominent role in the work of these four young composers. During the programme, Jef Neve calls it somewhat remarkably 'unknown music' to him, but he is also grateful that he was able to discover this new repertoire and can empathise with the compositions of his contemporaries. His acclaimed musical career is broad. He feels equally at home in the contemporary jazz scene as in the classical world.
The concert opens with the sparkling classically inspired composition Hammers by the German Nils Frahm as a long musical phrase. Followed by Opus 7, very poignant film music by Dustin O'Halloran with plenty of slow tempi. Then comes Infra 3 by Max Richter, born in Germany and living in the UK. His work is very minimalist and often repetitive. He has written the music for the fantastic series The Leftovers, among others. Next comes work by Ólafur Arnalds, the Icelandic multi-instrumentalist/composer with Beth's Theme and Poland. His compositions can be described as neoclassical. Contemporary classical music in a beautiful balance between melancholy and uplifting passages. While the previous compositions were exclusively for piano, here the strings also come in. The works performed are each of a fragile beauty. Not only complicated and virtuoso compositions can appeal but equally hushed, subtle, simple ones. Jef Neve and companions manage to create a special atmosphere in which you get lost.
The second part of this concert brings a selection of riveting works by Jef Neve himself. This is music of a completely different calibre. Inspired compositions each with their own story and bubbling stage pleasure. Music can today, more than ever, be an antidote to the madness we sometimes have to swallow. No need for a picture. Fortunately there is still music, and art and culture in general, through which we can make a difference with the crazy people on this planet. Starting with Spirit Control, an open improvisation on a Messiaen scale. The initiative is given by the cello, very dark and intriguing, then the double bass joins in, viola and piano. The attacks in Paris and Brussels also struck home with Jef Neve. According to his philosophy of life, there is more that binds us than divides us. As a tribute to the innocent victims of this madness, he composed Christal Lights. Then follow Beautiful Colours, NYC Marathon in which he is not averse to strange effects and fully captures the madness of the electoral battle between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. As a counterbalance comes music he composed for the film 'Sprakeloos' in which ultimate sadness and loneliness resound. But it is not all melancholy and vulnerability. Sometimes the composition is a burst of tingling vitality as in The space we need and Nothing but a Casablanca turtle slide show dinner in which frenzied rage echoes. In this jazzy repertoire Neve can really let loose. He can virtuously improvise, spurred on and given infectious musical riposte by the other musicians, and that takes him and the audience through all sorts of atmospheres. Every finger, every fibre in his body is music. He masters piano playing down to the smallest detail.
- WHAT: POST-CLASSICAL MUSICinPRIMETIME
- WHO: Artistic direction and piano: Jef Neve; drums: Jens Bouttery; double bass: Lennart Heyndels; violin: Christina Constantinescu and Christophe Pochet; viola: Sander Geerts; cello: Marlon Dek; synthesizer & saxophone: Andy Dhondt
- WHERE & WHEN: Thursday 15 February, AMUZ in Antwerpen
- PHOTO: Stephan Vanfleteren