I am in the Bethanien Klooster near Nieuwmarkt, listening to Rosanna Dingeman, a young woman (19) with long blond hair, play Godard on the Piano. She's playing from memory (without a score) and doing an excellent job of it.
It's a small hall, possibly a chapel once, but now there are no signs of religion. About a hundred people are sitting in stackable felt chairs. I am near the very back so that the laptop keyboard won't disturb people - and yet the stage is barely ten meters away. Tall windows to the left let in the sun - it is 7:30 in the evening but the summer day is quite strong still.
The first piece by Roasanna (Godard's etude de concert, cahier 4, no. 4c), is quite well executed. But it is the second, Debussy's La Plus que Lente (Valse) that touches even a completely untrained ear like mine. The piece has some complex and fast fingerwork, but what makes it work for me is the sequence of short movements- each a couple of notes higher - building up expectations, and then merging into the theme.
The third piece is her own composition. Titled "agititie" (agitation), you sense the modernity in the construction immediately as it opens. The music moves through a series of staccato undulations, which do build up anxiety - a sense of agitation. The middle part has an unfamiliar structure, and doesn't work for me as well, but in the end she returns to the starting staccato, and on the whole it does transmit the mood.
The next piece is by Laurien Schreuder, who is a mezzosoprano, aged 22. She is dressed in a thin black gown with a white dupaTTa coming down the front like a chador, and wears a feather on her head like an american indian. She is doing a Puccini piece, and sings with passion. It is quite surprising how penetrating her voice is - she's singing without a mic - given her lithe build...
I wonder how these students manage to keep up their practice. Rosanna is studying Psychology, and Laurien is doing Physics, how do they find the time for pursuing classical music - especially in the prevailaing rock and band atmosphere of amsterdam. As the applause fades, I look at them and wonder if they come from a privileged background, or may be an academic heritage, as most classical musicians seem to ...
The third is a quintet, with Marijn van Dijk as mezzosoprano, and two violins, one who did his phD some years back and the other, a short, neat woman playing violin 2, has just become a doctor. The woman on viola studies cultural anthropology, and the thin woman on cello is majoring in psychology. The piece they are doing is a translation from Shelley's "The sunset" into Italian. The singing manages to convey quite a bit of the pathos ("In the morning the lady found her lover dead and cold"). The program doesn't tell who has composed the music - I wonder if it is the performers themselves.
After this piece there appears to be a break. Everyone heads into the lobby. Quite a few people, it seems, leave. I am wondering if I should leave as well, but I too join the queue and pick up a white wine (2 euro). In the queue behind me is Rosanna Dingeman, and I congratulate her on her fine performance. I also get to ask the violin players from the last piece - "no, not at all!" - it isn't their composition at all - it's by a name I don't recognize. The small woman is on violin 2 - the doc - is being pawed and kissed by her lover, and they head down to grab their coffees and beer. People are milling around in small groups - the feathered soprano singer is talking to a group of friends - she is amazingly young. There is a smattering of elderly people, but mostly the crows is youngsters. The organizers are wearing tight T-shirts proclaiming "crew" - and one of them is going around interviewing the performers.
The hall has huge wooden beams going across, there is some subtle lighting along the roof, and two chandeliers in the audience area. It is nine PM now, and while the light is fainter, it is still quite visible.
I talk to some of the young organizers. One of them is kind enough to give me a poster from the wall, it shows some half-naked youngsters bicycling wearing cubical head-masks. The break is unexpectedly long - nearly forty minutes. I am a bit worried because I am planning to get some groceries, esp bread - for tomorrow morning...
The first performance after the break is Michiel Roosen, 23, who is studying Aviation. He is also without a score, and he plays Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op. 23 no. 5 in G minor ("klein" in Dutch). The piece is melodious, but I feel that his hand is perhaps a bit heavy, the subtleties are somewhat lost. The next piece is Chopin's Nocture Op. 55 no.1 in F minor. I have heard a Nocturne by Chopin, but I can't tell if this is the same. It's a slow piece and somehow, the execution, while technically perfect I am sure, doesn't seem to be doing justice to it emotionally. Perhaps because I am not in tune with it, it seems to be going on for a long time, and by the end I am waiting for it to end (and maybe others in the audience as well)...
The next performer is a revelation. She is Mascha van Nieuwkerk, who is playing the cello with a non-student accompanying on the piano. Earlier too, the accompanists for Laurien had not been named - perhaps they are professionals paid for the work and hence recognition is not necessary. In any event, her cello speaks to me like no other piece so far. Maybe it is something about the more base tone of the cello, along with the smooth glissandos that make it more like the human voice, at least compared to the metallic discreteness of the piano. Mascha is 18 and studies history; she plays with a lot of energy. Dressed in an elegant gown, she also presents a nice visual impression ...
Her first piece is "Bei Männer welche Liebe Fühlen" Wo 46 - the inadequate program doesn't give the composer, but I find out later that it's from Mozart's Zauberfloete (Magic Flute). The melody is emotive, and Mascha is quite passionate in executing it, and the Piano accompaniment is excellent. In between there is a small pizzicato which she executes well - I think it sounds nicer on the cello than on the violin. Her second piece, Hungarian Rhapsody by David Popper, (op.68, 1894), is a piece written for the cello and piano. It is marked by some frenetic pace, but the emotional nature also works for me.
The sixth performer is also on piano - Willem Mulder is a student in Business Economics, and plays Bach's Jesu joy of men's Desiring. This is a piece I know a bit - and he does a good enough job - but right after it, I have to leave because it is getting to ten PM when Albert Hijn closes - so I leave, and walk down to the store near Nieuwmarkt (new market) without unlocking my bicycle. On the way I pass several women who have taken up positions at the blue windows. I get some toast, a bottle of nutella chocolate spread, and some apples. Then, instead of going home, I think I will catch the rest, and I head back to the theater. On the way, one of the blue-light women gesticulates to me (I am carrying two grocery bags) ... she acts out a quick fellatio for me...
Back in the audience, I catch the very last (not on the program) act, which is the "studenten koor" - the choir. This is quite special indeed. It is conducted by a young man in jeans and unkempt T-shirt, who conducts a group of about thirty - twenty women in the front row, and ten men at the back. All are about 20 or so. The harmonies work amazingly well - the female soprano holding an amazingly high note for an extended period, while the others fit into it. They are supposed to do two numbers, but they do a third, con permiso from the absent organizers...
And then the end. I have to ride back with two bags of groceries... At one point, I take a wrong turn, but the tourist density and the blue windowed women tell me I am headed the wrong way - I turn back and finally find my way home across the familiar canals...
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For more on the Amsterdams Studenten Festival, see this jazzy homepage
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