Tribute to Keith Jarrett’s American Quartet: Craig Taborn, Chris Potter & The Bad Plus killed it! 😊

Impressed by ‘Theory of Flames’ at Dutch National Opera. Many wonderful details, amazing technical realisation, lots to think about: Michel van der Aa @vanderaa.bsky.social is leading the way. Topman! 😊

youtu.be/mgKcY8gu-yw line-up announcement 📢 and start of ticket sales 🎫 for our festival Dudok Muziekdagen 🚀 May 28-31!

Although ‘Hamnet’ was pretty rough around the emotional edges, the catharsis moment was absolutely magical and moved me deeply. If you want to know what art is capable of, go see this movie. Well done Chloé Zhao & team including @maxrichtermusic.bsky.social for composing a wonderful score 🙏

#Tchaikovsky's Third Quartet, and more, from the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam on Rubicon shorturl.at/FLNSp

Tomorrow my new work for reed quintet, "Link," will be premiered at the Muziekgebouw by the fabulous Calefax. "Link" was written to celebrate Calefax's 40th anniversary. 40 reed quintets from around the world joined forces, and performed a part of the piece: link.reedquintet.net

This Saturday, the @dudokquartet.bsky.social bring a powerful programme to #Bollington - from Saariaho’s Terra Memoria to Mussorgsky’s Songs & Dances of Death, ending with Schubert’s iconic Death and the Maiden. 📅 22 Nov, 7:30pm 📍 Bollington Arts Centre 🎟 bollington-chamber-concerts.org/dudok/

Bravo Orchestra 18th Century and Jorinde Keesmaat for unveiling some of the hidden depths in ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ by using Beaumarchais’ original source material. It takes guts to put on a production like this but you nailed it. Well done, congratulations! 👏👏👏

Since my first ‘Music for 18 Musicians’ (1990 @paradisoadam.bsky.social, Wim Vos 🙏 cueing on xylophone) I heard the piece many times live (one time including Steve Reich on piano 🫶); simply love that piece. Congrats @hetmuziek.bsky.social & friends at Muziekgebouw Amsterdam; excellent performance! ❤️

great piece on Berio in the Times by Jeff Brown. The embedded musical examples were very welcome, too. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/a...

opera2day.nl/programma/la... première tomorrow, all performances sold out, wow, looking forward! #proudchair 😊

Fraaie opening, heerlijke avond, cheers Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht 🫶

Me in front of a Kapoor

La Révolution de Carmen wordt bijzonder www.amare.nl/nl/agenda/la...

Lachenmann’s compositional signature is as unique as amazing and results in instant recognition. What a terrific composer! Next November 27th Lachenmann will celebrate his 90th birthday. Gratuliere! Many more happy returns maestro! 🫶 🙌 😊

After a brilliant performance of his ‘Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied’ (by the Diotima Quatuor and Gürzenich Orchester Köln conducted by Oscar Jockel) I bumped into Helmut Lachenmann backstage at the Kölner Philharmonie.

Some save their Springsteen, Beyoncé or Radiohead tickets. I saved my Andriessen tickets and treasure memories of great musical events. While reading ‘Groots is de Liefde’ the wonderful biography by Jacqueline Oskamp a lot of those memories bounced up spontaneously from the past; like this one 👇

Funny how the brain works, 25 years later the memory of that opera event suddenly becomes crystal clear. Believe me, it was a fan-tas-tic summer evening in New York! Tempus fugit, sure, fortunately Louis Andriessen was able to freeze time into great art 🙏

I.M. Pierre Audi (1957-2025) door Willem Bruls www.theaterkrant.nl/tm-artikel/i...

Zeven dagen Ferrara in de voetsporen van Georgio Bassani, Ali Smith, @bertwagendorp.bsky.social en vele anderen. De boeken kwamen helemaal tot leven. Wat een heerlijke stad!

Greetings from Metz 👋

Vanuit het thema ‘Grenzeloos’ vormt Kampen opnieuw het decor van de Dudok Muziekdagen. Vier dagen lang live muziek op unieke locaties in de historische Hanzestad. Top! 👌 Check: dudokmuziekdagen.nl

Impressive kickoff at Internationaal Lied Festival Zeist by the amazing Christoph Prégardien and Hans Eijsackers. Combining Wolfgang Rihms Song cycle “Ende der Handschrift” with Schubert was a fantastic decision. It opened up an inspiring depth in the context of the German Lied tradition. ilfz.nl

“Hier” (zei mijn vrouw - we gaan er eind van de maand naartoe) “lezen!” Ik heb ‘t verslonden.

Wat een verlies. www.welt.de/kultur/artic...

Aanrader! youtu.be/ZseOw7_-vTA

To experience the cascades of sounds, I took my place between the brass section of the tutti ensemble, the cimbalon and the pianos, which made my fifth ‘Répons Live’ extra sparkling 😊 #Boulez100

My first ‘Répons Live’ experience was in 1990. It just blew me away. Looking forward to hearing it live for the fifth time tonight at the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam #Boulez100

Nature is never finished” (Robert Smithson) 54 years later Broken Circle / Spiral Hill @brokencircle.bsky.social still creates a magical place (even with high ground water)

Het Muziek? #callmeoldfashioned maar ik vind deze naam vanuit ‘rebranding’ niet ‘radicaal’ maar simpelweg verbijsterend lelijk 😳 askoschoenberg.nl/persbericht-...

coming out (who would have thought?)

Allemachtig wat ‘n open deur! #Baele 🤨

Teken ook! behoudntr.petities.nl

Just unveiled at De Doelen Rotterdam, statue (by Stephan Balkenhol) of Dutch composer Willem Pijper

Boulez100. Celebrating his centenary, l’Orchestre de Paris performed a vintage Boulez programme at the Philharmonie: Stravinsky’s Octet, Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion in combination with Boulez’ monumental ‘Rituel’ sounding utterly compelling. Esa-Pekka Salonen was on top of his game.

Tomorrow: ‘Rituel’ in the Philharmonie de Paris; looking forward 😊 philharmoniedeparis.fr/fr/activite/...

Wat mij betreft de allerleukste platenzaak van Parijs; loop altijd even binnen als ik in de lichtstad ben, vandaag was geen uitzondering 😉

RIP Sofia Gubaidulina Her death triggers many memories; two stand out: 1989 (Russian Music at Holland Festival) and 1993 (Jetzt immer Schnee, Netherlands Chamber Choir & Schönberg Ensemble). Such a great composer! 😔

“You Americans take jazz too lightly. You seem to feel that it is cheap, vulgar, momentary. In my opinion, it is bound to lead to the national music of the United States. Aside from it you have no veritable idiom as yet.” —Maurice Ravel, via @natechinen.bsky.social in his savvy article for WRTI

Any further questions? #gutstrings #tchaikovsky 🙋‍♂️

How Ornette Coleman’s ‘Shape of Jazz to Come’ is quoted in ‘A Complete Unknown’, check my post on LinkedIn

Thanks 🙏 😊 for your kind words about our first Tchaikovsky album… and happy to share the news that the release of Vol. 2 is less then one week away!

Exiting news from my favourite stringquartet @dudokquartet.bsky.social

March 1987 Conlon Nancarrow visited Amsterdam. Wonderful memories. Almost 40 years later I’m rereading Kyle Gann’s book (1996 review 👇 by @erikvoermans.bsky.social ) while listening to the wonderful arrangements (2008) for Reed Quintet & piano made by @raafhekkema.bsky.social @calefax.bsky.social 😊

Wonderful performance of Helmut Lachenmann’s ‘My Melodies’ by HR-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt (including eight solo horns) conducted by Matthias Hermann. After following his works from the late eighties this piece seems to be his magnum opus.

Tomorrow I’ll take the train to Frankfurt for a 45 minute experience (some pieces just have to be listened to live) #MyMelodies

Coming up next Friday: Helmut Lachenmann’s ‘My Melodies’ by HR Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, looking forward 😊

OPERA2DAY directors & board 😊

Sunday morning, perfect timing for 👇