Ad Parnassum presents a special program around the premiere of Jan-Peter de Graaff’s Effugium (2024). In this program we work closely with Elisabeth Hetherington, soprano and artist-in-residence of the November Music festival in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. In addition, mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, percussionist Konstantyn Napolov and wind players from the Brabant Chamber Orchestra will participate.

We perform compositions for mixed choir, wind ensemble and percussion. Jan-Peter de Graaff writes a new monumental choral work at the request of Ad Parnassum. In this twenty-minute work, De Graaff refers to Renaissance music and Baroque, but he also draws inspiration from the modernism of George Crumb and Györgi Ligeti. “All this combined with my own musical style, which is more about sculpting seductive sounds than about the hyper-conceptual,” De Graaff gives a glimpse of the veil. 

The impressive Mass (1944-1948) by Igor Stravinsky for mixed choir and double wind quintet runs like a common thread through the concert program. The program fully follows the structure of the liturgy for the dead. There are also parts from the Psalm Requiem (2005) by Daan Manneke and other suitable work by Stravinsky and De Graaff (his Monument from 2011).

Composer Jan-Peter de Graaff, despite his young age (32 years old), already has an extensive oeuvre. Many of De Graaff’s compositions are characterized by a high degree of transparency and use of color in harmony, structure and orchestration, with an important focus on form and melodic development. A complete requiem mass was impossible for him and so Jan-Peter de Graaff decided to limit himself to the most exciting part, the Dies Irae, the Day of Judgment. According to the composer, this theme is more relevant than ever, because humanity is confronted more than ever with judgments from others due to the internet and social media and is constantly tempted to participate, sometimes unintentionally and against the will. The title of the work, Effugium (Exit), is an open door, a way out, an escape.

Program:

Jan-Peter de Graaff – Effugium (première)

Igor Stravinsky – Mass

Daan Manneke – Psalmenrequiem