Mathilde Wantenaar: what’s new?

Amarante Nat – I listen to the ocean and all I hear is you
Mathilde Wantenaar  – Strijkkwartet nr 1 deel 2
Rick van Veldhuizen – Liederen voor mezzosopraan, altviool en cello
Max van Platen – Voor ik slaap
Max van Platen – Pianotrio
Tijmen van Tol – Pianokwintet
Jan-Peter de Graaff – 2 souvenirs voor mezzo-sopraan en piano

Jasperina Verheij, mezzo-sopraan / Rutger Jansen, piano / Pelargos Kwartet / Carine Lacor

A question: what is actually new about the Nieuwe Kerk, completed in 1656? At this apt location, a group of young composers shed new light on the concept of ‘innovation’ in music. Sometimes it seems like you have to be ‘innovative’ to be taken seriously as a composer. But why? And how innovative is it if everyone is innovative?

Guest curator Mathilde Wantenaar thinks it is important that the festival also features the work of kindred spirits and contemporaries, who, like herself, are often not iconoclasts and instead fall back on tradition. How necessary is innovation anyway – does every composer have to be a revolutionary like Monteverdi, Beethoven or Stravinsky?
The composers on the programme are Amarante Nat, Rick van Veldhuizen, Max van Platen, Tijmen van Tol, Jan-Peter de Graaff and Mathilde herself. Their pieces are at most a few years old – yes, that’s what you call new music.