For the 2024 edition of the Cello Biënnale, coming up in a few weeks in the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ Amsterdam, the festival commissioned a large work from Marinissen, for cello, piano and cello octet, to be performed by Giovanni Sollima, a delightful returning guest of the festival, Cello Octet Amsterdam and pianist Frank van de Laar. On two earlier occasions, Arnold Marinissen contributed to the Cello Biënnale, with “Cello Songbook” and “Nebula”, both with cellist Katharina Gross. He is pleased to return to the festival!
Conceiving the new work, Marinissen decided to link up with the Cello Biënnale’s tradition of involving the cello in the widest possible range of style periods and traditions. In the recent past, Marinissen has worked with historic recordings towards creating new work on a few occasions; this is the approach he chose for the new work.
The result is “Whispering Angels” for cello, piano and cello octet. It is inspired by the frail sound of some of the earliest cello recordings, in particular the recording that cellist Victor Herbert and pianist Rosario Bordon made on 26 January 1912, of The Angels Whisper, a song by the nineteenth century Irish composer and poet Samuel Lover. In Marinissen composition, the recording of the Lover’s work has vanished, but remnants of it stick out of Whispering Angels, like dinosaur bones out of the sand.
“Whispering Angels” will be performed by Giovanni Sollima and Frank van de Laar on stage, and Cello Octet Amsterdam surrounding the audience. These “cello angels” echo and expand historic cello sounds, evoking a broken and intimate song from a remote past.
Arnold Marinissen about his work: ‘For me, creating music is all about immersing. Warmth and pulse are words that come to mind when I try to describe my music. Voice and text are important; I like to follow the route that a text lays out for me, to deal with breath, diction, nuances of intonation, and I’m intrigued by the personality of each individual voice.’ With his background in percussion he also likes to write for this multi-coloured family of instruments. But he equally gladly dedicates himself to strings, winds and keyboards, electro-acoustic music and music for dance and film. His vocal quintet “Von Pferden, Gräsern, Sonnen, Menschen” was nominated for the Toonzetters Best Dutch Work of 2012 Prize. It was performed by Silbersee, and by EXAUDI in the UK. His work has been performed throughout the Netherlands, in the Holland Festival, the Biennale di Venezia, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the PASIC and Zeltsman Marimba Festival (USA), Sao Paolo (Brazil), Taipei (Taiwan), Zagreb (Croatia) and Wellington (New Zealand), amongst others. His music also featured in the Dutch cinema film Bernard and in dance productions by Club Guy & Roni, Korzo Productions and Scapino Ballet. It was broadcast by the BBC and in The Netherlands. Arnold Marinissen is Head of Composition, Classical Voice and Master research at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
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