Muze van Zuid 2023 celebrating the city of Amsterdam and ensemble culture ran from14th – 17th September.
Festival Muze van Zuid brings house concerts, music walks and a wide variety of music styles in a rich sound palette of voices and instruments. In its sixth edition, the festival also shows how lively and varied the typical Dutch ensemble culture still is: for example, the Herz Ensemble presents a special triptych dedicated to Kate Moore, Nieuw Amsterdams Peil presents Jan-Bas Bollen’s HyperTheremin, Ensemble Klang presents the hypnotic dreams of airs by Rozalie Hirs, and Neo-Fanfare 9×13 irony à la Monty Python and Tati in the climate comedy Under NAP with music by Geneviève Murphy, Huba de Graaff, Marc Kaptein, Ned McGowan, Moondog and Pete Harden (Harden won the 2023 Matthijs Vermeulen Prize for composition this year). The top vocal ensembles Utopia and Psallentes will also be visiting from Flanders, including choral works by Orlandus Lassus, the ‘Belgian Orpheus’.
The culture of all these ensembles flourishes through cooperation based on equality, based on a philosophy that is also characteristic of the festival. Muze van Zuid is a widely supported festival, which exists thanks to the commitment and solidarity of people who open their homes, studios or shops to the musicians. Top musicians like the soprano Channa Malkin , guitarist Izhar Elias , mezzo-soprano Michaela Riener , accordionist Vincent van Amsterdam , percussionist Tatiana Koleva , or wizard in live electronics Ruben Kieftenbelt challenge the audience with new and rarely heard music. This edition offers chamber music at the highest level at an affordable price Chianti Ensemble , it Animation Quartet and the string trio with Rosanne Philippens , Hannah Strijbos and Lydia Blijdorp . Violinist Paul Fischer and accordion player Jacob Jedlinsky come especially from Prague.
Today’s musicians are given the opportunity to present new programmes. All round musician Jean Jacques Rojer brings with singer Julian Martina premiering a project reviving the old ties between South America and the Caribbean islands. Soprano Lucretia Stark and countertenor Arthur den Hartog develop with pianist Maxime Snaterse a new program that brings together romantic song art with works by composers from their birthplace Paramaribo. Ghaeth Almagoot and his musicians cast with the Iranian theater and film scholar Anahita Shamsavari a surprising oriental light on the renaissance. Violinist Julia Philippens explores with her band the heritage of Paul Godwin and Nap de Klijn, top violinists who were both equally at home in light and classical.
Recorder Quartet brisk plays renaissance and new music in the Vondelkerk. The soprano Renate Arends brings with organist Geerten van de Wetering a masterpiece by Hendrik Andriessen in the Obrechtkerk, where the Dudok Quartet of Shunske Sato will shine in the String Quintet of Anton Bruckner, who is so celebrated in Amsterdam. The NTR is also enthusiastic and will be recording the concert for later broadcast on Radio 4.
