programme
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)
Neun deutsche Arien, HWV 202-210
texts: Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1680-1747)
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Künft’ger Zeiten eitler Kummer
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Das zitternde Glänzen der spielenden Wellen
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Süßer Blumen Ambraflocken
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Süße Stille
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Singe, Seele, Gott zum Preise
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Meine Seele hört im Sehen
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Die ihr aus dunklen Grüften den eitlen Mammon grabt
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In den angenehmen Büschen
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Flammende Rose, Zierde der Erden
Wim Henderickx (°1962)
new compositions for instrumental ensemble (commissioned by B’Rock Orchestra)
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Into the light
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Sweet silence
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Into the darkness
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Joy
extra information
NEUN DEUTSCHE ARIEN – G.F. HÄNDEL
The name of the German-born composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) will forever be associated with the city of London: the metropolis for which he wrote the lion’s share of the operas, oratorios and works for special occasions that made him famous. However, in 1727 Handel visited his home country for the last time with the intention of saying goodbye to his ailing mother. It is likely that this trip led to his composing the Neun deutsche Arien.
As textual material, Handel selected nine poems from Barthold Heinrich Brockes’ major work, Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott (Earthly Pleasure in God), published as a series from 1721. Barthold Heinrich Brockes was just five years older than Handel and lived in Hamburg. His work was also used by such composers as Bach and Telemann. His straightforward and lucid writing style contrasts sharply with the Baroque bombast of popular poets of the time like Giambattista Marino. Brockes, whose poems interpreted natural phenomena in a religious manner, was a pioneer of the ‘Empfindsamer Stil’ (sensitive style) and helped pave the way for later Romantic nature poets such as Klopstock and Von Eichendorff.
With the Neun deutsche Arien, which were probably influenced by his mother’s poor health, Handel, who was celebrated in London for his pompous music for special occasions and Italian heroic operas, was sidetracked into the domain of the intimate recital, and immersed himself in the mindset of early Pietism. With a Baroque past, and the Enlightenment ahead, man discovers in these moving arias the touching beauty of nature and interprets it as a sign from God. Living in a bourgeois milieu, he agrees with Leibniz that this world is the best of all possible worlds.
Wim Henderickx
Wim Henderickx works as a composer, percussionist, conductor and professor of composition. He studied composition and percussion at the Royal Conservatoire in Antwerp and sonology at IRCAM in Paris, and at the Conservatoire of Music in The Hague. His compositions are often inspired by other cultures. He wrote works for opera, music theatre, orchestra, choirs and chamber music. Electronics are often an important feature in his oeuvre. Wim Henderickx has been Composer-In-Residence at Muziektheater Transparant since 1996. He joined the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra as an Artist-In-Residence in 2013. He is a professor of composition at the conservatories of Amsterdam and Antwerp. Finally, he is the main coach of the annual SoundMine composition course for young composers at Musica, Impulse Centre for Music in Belgium.