Nieuw Amsterdams Peil performs Bertus van Lier

Nieuw Amsterdams Peil is usually known for its passionate contemporary music performances, but with this project, the collective dives into the past and focuses on one composer: not contemporary, but Dutch. New Amsterdam Peil will perform the complete chamber music oeuvre of composer Bertus van Lier (1906-1972): from the early unknown works of which one can hardly find any recordings of several pieces that were regularly played during his life.

Bertus van Lier (Utrecht 10.09.1906 – Roden (Dr.) 14.2.1972) was actively involved in Dutch musical life throughout his life, in which he played an important role. Van Lier made his name as a composer and composition teacher and also as a conductor, theoretician, essayist and music critic, philologist, translator, and singer.

During his last twelve years, he taught musicology at Groningen University. Fellow composers such as Hans Henkemans and Henk Badings describe Van Lier as someone who went deeply into the subjects that interested him and kept searching for the backgrounds. He is a man possessed with an enormous sense of responsibility, but so uncompromising that he would rather achieve nothing than something he did not like’. That is how Henkemans once described him in an interview. Van Lier usually formed strong opinions based on his studies and findings, and he did not shy away from conflict.

Van Lier’s music is characterised by a unique sound with a flowing melody, strict contrapuntalism, resonant harmonics, and a well-thought-out metric. But unfortunately, when the Netherlands became involved in the Second World War, Van Lier withdrew from musical life and sometime later – Van Lier became involved in the resistance, and coming from a Jewish family, he was forced to go into hiding.

Program:
– La fille morte voor stem en piano op tekst van Paul Fort (1926)
– Sonatina voor viool en piano (1926)
– Sonatine voor cello en piano (1926)
– Sonatine 1 voor piano (1926/27)
– Strijkkwartet nr. 1 (1928/29)
– Sonatine 2 voor piano ((1929/30)
– Sonatine voor cello solo (1931)
– Vier verzen van J.H. Leopold, voor stem en piano (1933)
– Kleine suite voor viool en piano (1935)
– Liedje en canon (1944)
– 3 Oud-Perzische kwatrijnen voor sopraan, altfluit, hobo d’amore en piano (1956)
– Eens voor stem en piano (1966)

Nieuw Amsterdams Peil:
Katrien Baerts – sopraan
Eline van Esch – altfluit
Justine Gerretsen – hobo d’amore
Emma Breedveld – viool
Heleen Hulst – viool
Elisabeth Smalt – altviool
Mick Stirling – cello
Gerard Bouwhuis – piano