In the oeuvre of Louis Andriessen, the organ does not occupy a prominent place: he has only one organ work to his name. He composed The Divine Routine – a typically Andriessen title – for the 125th birthday of his father, the composer Hendrik Andriessen, in 2017. Ere Lievonen performs a special programme on organ and harpsichord with works by both father and son Andriessen, supplemented with music by Andriessen’s former pupils Martijn Padding and Calliope Tsoupaki.
Since 2009, Ere Lievonen has been the resident performer of the microtonal Fokker organ in the Kleine Zaal of the Muziekgebouw, an exceptional instrument from 1950 on which the octave is divided into no fewer than 31 tones. Thanks to Lievonen, Andriessen’s The Divine Routine is now heard on the Fokker organ for the first time. The harpsichord work Overture to Orpheus (1982) deals, according to Andriessen, with “the borderline between canon and unison techniques.” Its monomaniacally spiralling sounds form the prelude to an imaginary opera about Orpheus.
Martijn Padding’s Cow Music (originally for harmonium), a work that was also performed on the Fokker organ in 2018, is an ode to the splendid animal, the cow, and the Dutch landscape that is slowly disappearing. In the movements ‘Padding’s country dance no.1 & 2’ he also makes reference to the dance.
This concert is part of the Andriessen Festival.