In 1988 Calliope Tsoupaki came to Amsterdam from her native Greece to study with Louis Andriessen. And she stayed here – from 2019 to 2021 she was even the Netherlands’ Composer Laureate. Her coming to this city bursting with so much creative energy was the inspiration for Another Day, premiering on 6, 7 and 8 March. ‘I’ve lived here for more than half my life now, and I’ve grown completely attached to the city,’ says Tsoupaki in an interview for Preludium. ‘I’m an “Amsterdamse” through and through!’
What attracts her so much about the Dutch capital is its lively energy and its rich cultural scene. ‘Everything is going on here, there’s always motion. It’s always been this way. Amsterdam was a port city from the beginning (…) Where there’s so much water, you have trade, people from different backgrounds meet each other. That gives rise to new connections, to other perspectives and ways of looking at things.’
Traditionally, this liberal atmosphere has attracted philosophers, artists, musicians, writers and scientists. ‘It was a human polyphony, of people who found the room here to be exposed to and develop new ideas. That’s created a huge dynamism,’ says Tsoupaki. ‘All of this has made Amsterdam such a cultural city, it’s multicultural to the core.’
Amsterdam’s multicultural climate is a main theme of our concerts on 6 and 7 March. Besides music by Louis Andriessen, Joop Stokkermans and others, Tsoupaki’s Another Day, featuring the sounds of the city’s dynamism and liveliness. ‘I’ve used the wealth of timbres of the Concertgebouw Orchestra to capture the many colours of Amsterdam. Slender wisps of sound reaching for the heavens are connected to my coming here, where I also learned to appreciate the mud. Amsterdam has something hopeful about it: even in these dark times, there’s always hope for another day, and that keeps you going.’
Born in South-Korea, Seung-Won Oh studied with Louis Andriessen as well. Following her studies in the United States, being in the Netherlands deepened her engagement with the musical traditions of her heritage. First recognized by de Volkskrant as ‘a name to remember’ in 2003, she went on to shaped her distinctive artistic voice.
Her new piece, Spiri III: Sacred Ritual, written for the Concertgebouw Orchestra, is the final piece of an orchestral trilogy. The title Spiri derives from the Latin root spir, meaning ‘breath’, evoking the omnipresent energy that animates existence. This concept resonates across cultures, for example in ki (Korean), chi (Chinese), qi (Japanese). ‘The trilogy is inspired by the cyclical and eternal nature of the universe, where beginnings and endings dissolve into one another’, says Oh. Spiri III: Sacred Ritual serves as both the culmination and expansion of its predecessors.
A defining element of the trilogy is the bell sound which starts each piece. ‘The sound of bells represents something eternal for many cultures,’ says Oh, ‘and at the same time, each peal has its own life, starting with the attack and gradually fading away.’ It first appears as a complex dissonant in Spiri III, gradually falling apart into open, consonant chords. This motif recurs throughout the work in various guises. The final bell call manifests as an extended coda, where the trilogy’s underlying chaconne (a cycle of chords) emerges in its purest and most harmonious form.
Oh also took inspiration from the fact that the premiere of her new work on 26, 27 and 28 March – conducted by Klaus Mäkelä – will be followed by Offertorium by Sofia Gubaidulina. Oh found particular inspiration in ‘Gubaidulina’s unshakeable faith, that is reflected in the piece’.
Gubaidulina is without a doubt one of the twentieth century’s most important composers. Since she was operating behind the Iron Curtain, her work was unknown in the West. This changed in 1989, when the Holland Festival was dedicated to Soviet composers, and Gubaidulina’s music made a huge impression. Two years later, the Concertgebouw Orchestra performed her violin concerto Offertorium, and the orchestra went on to perform other works by the Tatar composer. Under the baton of Klaus Mäkelä, they’ll play Offertorium – a meditation on Bach’s Musical Offering – once again, this time with soloist Julian Rachlin.
Buy tickets for 26, 27 or 28 March
March 2025 has even more music by women composers in store. On 12, 13 and 14 March you can hear Fractured Time by Anna Clyne. The Children’s Concert, Commander_n00b, on 23 March, will feature Dancing to an Orange Drummer by Vanessa Lann.
Traditionally, it was highly unusual for orchestras to play works by female composers. Although women are still underrepresented on programmes today, one of the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s policy spearpoints in the last few years has been programming more works by women. The commissioned compositions by Calliope Tsoupaki and Seung-Won Oh have been made possible in part by the Leading Women in Music Fund.
While the number of female orchestra musicians and soloists has been proportional for years, female composers and conductors remain underexposed in the orchestral world.
We’re delighted to be doing our part to get better representation for women in these positions among the top symphony orchestras worldwide with our Leading Women in Music Fund. We aim to achieve this by putting more women in the spotlight, increasing the number of inspiring role models, scouting and guiding talented women, and of course by making productions with female conductors and composers possible. Everyone is welcome to contribute to this fund: private donors, businesses, funds, and foundations that feel connected to this cause.
If you like to know how you can donate to the Leading Women in Music Fund, please contact Barbara Ruding (senior fundraiser for special projects) via b.ruding@concertgebouworkest.nl.
In the March issue of Preludium and on preludium.nl you can read an interview (in Dutch) by Thea Derks with Calliope Tsoupaki, an article on Gubaidulina’s Offertorium and programme notes to all the works.
Barbara Ruding would be happy to tell you more.
