On 10 September 2015 at 18:00 CET, Slagwerk Den Haag’s new CD Six is presented during the Gaudeamus Music Week in TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht. The new CD includes works by Iannis Xenakis, Peter Adriaansz, Maarten Altena, Luiz Yudo, Tom Johnson, Steve Reich and Rozalie Hirs. The photo above shows Slagwerk Den Haag after the recording of Rozalie Hirs’ composition Venus (2010) at Muziekgebouw Eindhoven.
Venus [evening star] – Rozalie Hirs
Venus [invisible]
Venus [morning star]
Rozalie Hirs composed Venus in three movements, for six percussionists and electronic sounds, commissioned by Slagwerk Den Haag for the Holland Festival 2010. Venus was premiered in Zaha Hadid’s Bach Pavilion at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam. Hirs was inspired for this piece by the round shapes and curves of the pavilion and by the ‘Sixxen,’ a set of percussion instruments that composer Yannis Xenakis developed in the late 1970s for his work Pléïades. The pavilion’s Moebius loop reminded Hirs of the trajectory the planet Venus travels in the sky, as seen from the earth throughout the year.
Special thanks to Casper Schipper for assistance with the electronic sound synthesis for Venus [evening star]; and special thanks to Niels Bogaards for scripting the spectral analysis of the sixxen and subsequent resynthesis into electronic sounds for Venus [morning star].
SIX came about thanks to the support of the Fonds Podiumkunsten, Gemeente Den Haag, Société Gavigniès and the Muziekcentrum Nederland. Special thanks to Henk Heuvelmans, and Holland Festival. Sound engineering: Guido Tichelman.
Starts: 2015-09-10
Door time: 18:00
Location: Gaudeamus Music Week, TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht
Performers: Slagwerk Den Haag