Ivo van Emmerik (NL) – Wiesengrund
DOWNLOAD: Ivo van Emmerik (NL) – “Wiesengrund” – Susanne Kessel, Klavier
Ivo van Emmerik about his piano piece “Wiesengrund”
“Wiesengrund was written to celebrate Beethoven’s music and its effect on music history. For me, the best way to do this was to write a piano piece to the best of my abilities in which I tried to translate the strong contrasts and the sublime character of his music to my own music within a timespan of four minutes. As the Arietta of Beethoven’s Opus 111, my piece is built up as a series of variations, but without a real theme. And although I didn’t intend to quote any of his compositions, suddenly the main motive of the Arietta appeared. I tried to use many Beethovenian emotions: robust, lyrical, stillness, contrasts of register, etc., in short, the whole meadow where we composer-sheep have been grazing for over two centuries now.”
Piano piece “Wiesengrund” – in concert:
25th Februar 2015 – world premiere – Klavierhaus Klavins, Bonn – Susanne Kessel, piano
2nd July 2016 – Kunstmuseum Bonn – Susanne Kessel, piano
4th December 2017 – Festival Nieuwe Muziek, Zwolle – Susanne Kessel, piano
5th December 2017 – ArtEZ Conservatorium Zwolle – Susanne Kessel, piano
21st December 2017 – Stadkamer Zwolle – Santiago Juncal, piano
11th April 2024 – Beethoven Piano Club, Pantheon Bonn – Susanne Kessel, piano
About Ivo van Emmerik (*1961)
Ivo van Emmerik was born in Amsterdam and studied composition with Robert Heppener in Amsterdam and Brian Ferneyhough, Frederic Rzewski and Walter Zimmermann in The Hague. He also attended summer courses given by Morton Feldman and John Cage. Later, he studied electronic music and computer applications with René Uijlenhoet. Van Emmerik has written solo works, chamber music and orchestral works that have been performed throughout Europe by some of the finest musicians. Moreover, he often collaborated with other artists in works that combine sound, text and image and he composed music for interactive electronic media. Since 1998, Ivo van Emmerik teaches music- and cultural history and analysis at the ArtEZ Conservatory in Zwolle, Netherlands. His music has been performed at many international festivals, such as Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt (1990), Holland Festival (1991), Biennale Zagreb (1991), Festival SpatioMusica ( 1998) and Transit Festival Leuven (2004), performed by Residentie Orkest (Hans Vonk conducting), Nederlands Kamerorkest (Lucas Vis conducting), Nieuw Ensemble (Ed Spanjaard conducting), Slagwerkgroep Den Haag, Ives Ensemble, muziekgroep ‘de ereprijs’, Het Trio, Anthony de Mare a.o. Website Ivo van Emmerik
Gallery: Ivo van Emmerik at “250 piano pieces for Beethoven” in Bonn
25. Februar 2016 – Klavierhaus Klavins, Bonn
