For this special occasion, the unique acoustic Fokker organ will be expanded with digital organ stops. In this way, various lifelike organ sounds will be added to several works from the Romantic era, which require more stops than the Fokker organ possesses. These additional sounds will, of course, be tuned according to the 31-tone system, allowing major organ works from the 19th and 20th centuries to be performed for the first time in meantone tuning in a truly perfect manner.
Alongside these classical works, the programme features Hilbert’s Hotel by the Dutch composer Rozalie Hirs, in which the spectral electronic sounds merge seamlessly with the organ tones of the 31-tone organ. All of this will be made possible by a new, advanced sound system suspended near the organ pipes from the ceiling of the Kleine Zaal in the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ.
Resident Fokker organist Ere Lievonen will take on the admirable task of making this microtonal instrument sound unlike anything you have heard before. In three works for four hands and feet (including the rhythmic, pattern-based Speed Loops by Christina Oorebeek and the short, harmonically rich Spring scram by Lauri Supponen), he will be joined by the young and talented organist Maarten Havinga, who already gave a convincing performance on the Fokker organ last season.