French Music and young talents

On the program for our third day at Cello Biennale: a chamber Music concert with Nicolas Altstaedt, Thomas Dunford and Jonathan Cohen, and a performance by three young talents — Stefano Bruno, Hayoung Choi and Harriet Krijgh — alongside the Orchester du Amsterdam Conservatory.

From viola da gamba to cello

Nicolas Altstaedt on cello, Thomas Dunford on theorbo and Jonathan Cohen on harpsichord transported us into the world of French baroque music from the 16th to the 18th century, while highlighting its Italian influences.

Through this exploration of the baroque repertoire, the music initially composed for the viola da gamba was put in the spotlight, here performed on the cello. began to rapidly popularize in court circles, becoming the favorite musical instrument of the bedroom and salons, especially in France.

Played between the legs (hence its name “da gamba”), it generally has six or seven strings tuned in fourths and thirds, which gives it a soft and expressive tone. French composers such as Marin Marais (1656-1728) enriched his repertoire, with emblematic pieces such as Human Voices et The Spanish Follieswhich the artists performed during this concert.

The cello, on the other hand, appeared in the 17th century in Italy, and quickly gained popularity thanks to its powerful sound and its bow perpendicular to the strings. At this time, French musicians, such as Jean-Baptiste Barrière (1707-1747), contributed to the transition between the viola da gamba and the cello, as evidenced by his Sonata n°4 in B flat. This piece begins with a andante delicate, which we hear faster and faster until reaching an intensity comparable to hard rock or metal guitar riffs – Barrière anticipating, in a way, much more recent musical styles.

The program also included works by other French composers: The Leclair by Antoine Forqueray, deploying his nostalgic melodic landscape, The Mysterious Barricades by François Couperin, with its rhythmic elegance and complex harmonies, and the Prelude in E minor by Robert De Visée, performed solo on the theorbo, offering an introspection with beautiful dynamics.

On the Italian side, the trio opened with And can't come by Vincenzo Bonizzi, a meditative work which set the tone for the evening, and closed with the Sonate in F by Giovanni Platti, a cheerful and vibrant melody, illustrating the Italian inspiration behind the French baroque repertoire.

Thanks to their virtuoso, elegant and sober playing, as well as their great complicity, Altstaedt, Dunford and Cohen were able to deeply move the spectators, captivated in religious silence throughout the concert.

Young talents

Three young award-winning artists: Stefano Bruno, Hayoung Choi et Harriet Krijghwere on stage in the main hall of the Muziekgebouw for a program mixing romantic, post-romantic and contemporary repertoire, with the Symphony Orchestra of the Amsterdam Conservatory.

Students from the Amsterdam Conservatory, integrated into the establishment's Symphony Orchestra, regularly work with renowned conductors on a demanding and varied repertoire. They perform in prestigious venues such as the Music building on 't IJ from Amsterdam, the TivoliVredenburg of Utrecht, or the Music building of Eindhoven, and in events such as the Cello Biennale and the competition of the Young Pianist Foundation.

Here they performed the prelude to Tristan and Isolde by Richard Wagner, under the direction of Leonard Elschenbroich, rendering all its subtleties and emotional power.

Stefano Bruno, winner of first prize in the National Cello Competition during the 2022 Biennale, performed the romance by Richard Strauss with sensitivity and finesse, and Harriet Krijgh gave us a touching Cello Concerto in E minor by Edward Elgar, a piece with which she won the same competition in 2012.

Hayoung Choiwinner of the first cello prize at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2022, brilliantly performed 5 Album pages by Jörg Widmann (created in 2022). This work offered a fascinating dialogue between contemporary music and Schumannian motifs, which the South Korean cellist mastered with impressive ease and depth.

She demonstrated her versatility, energy and humor through the obsession with the staccato rhythm of Liebeleitaking us into the dream in the yodeling of Folk songbefore making us dance Bossa nova for Clara and Robert.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the orchestra had more women than men, a situation that is still rare in classical orchestras, where women remain underrepresented in orchestras, particularly in leadership positions.
In 2019, a study found that only 39% of orchestral musicians in Europe, the UK and the US are women, and 17% were conductors. Even if they are the majority in strings and woodwinds, their presence remains low in brass and percussion, as highlighted in a 2020 study by the French Association of Orchestras.

Despite the anonymous auditions which favored their recruitment, implicit bias and the lack of anonymity in certain selections limit women's access to high-level positions, as Heidi Waleson, opera critic for The Wall Street Journalin his article Orchestrating Gender Equity (OvertonesCurtis Institute of Music, 2023).

Waleson points out: “The more prestigious an orchestra, the fewer women there are among the principal musicians.” In the five largest American orchestras (Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, and Philadelphia), very few women have held key positions, such as conductor, first violin, or head of the double bass, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, or timpani.

Welcoming the female presence in the Conservatory orchestra is therefore essential, but above all let us hope that this does not portend a setback for these female musicians when they leave this ensemble and try to find their place in renowned orchestras.

The French connection

Programme

Three Winners

Programme

Richard Wagner, Prelude to Tristan and Isolde
Richard Strauss, romance
Jörg Widmann, 5 Album pages
Edward Elgar, Celloconcert in e

Interpreters

Stefano Bruno, Hayoung Choi, Harriet Krijgh cello
CvA Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Elschenbroich, direction