The program is a selection of the best music from Black Pencil’s contemporary repertoire, in which different characters alternate and complement each other. The ensemble is joined by up-and-coming talents that you want to keep an eye on in 2023.

Pure polyphony and humor in the work of Martijn Padding, virtuosity and rhythmic precision of Klas Torstensson, the rich timbres of Yannis Kyriakides, mechanical patterns and the endless power of Louis Andriessen.

In Baldwine Close Ups, Martijn Padding explores pure polyphony in a substantial way, using renaissance techniques such as canon and palindrome, applied in polyphony: harmonic language based on modality but placed in a chromatic framework. In one of the five parts of the work, the life of the intriguing English composer John Baldwine (16th century) is told in an infectious way.

The Dutch-Swedish composer Klas Torstensson focuses on the wide range of colours, playing techniques and sound possibilities of Black Pencil. His piece ‘Colour Consort’ is virtuoso and rousing.

The work of Yannis Kyriakides is inspired by the landscape artwork ‘Observatorium’ (Lelystad) and based on the immensity of time. The basis of the piece is a periodic electronic sound that matches the cycles of the turbines that surround the site. Over this, cycles of expanding and contracting harmonic material reflect the seasonal cycles, and each instrument forges its own individual elastic time in it. This in contrast to Louis Andriessen’s iconic work full of mechanical patterns and endless power; high energy!

Sit Fast is the brand new concert series by Black Pencil, an international and versatile ensemble with a surprising line-up. The title of the series comes from a work by the Renaissance composer Christopher Tye (c.1505-1572). Sit Fast means as much as ‘sit firmly’ and listen. At the end of Sit Fast he wrote: ‘Sing true and fear not for I am true and fear not’. One cannot dream of a better motto in musical performance!

Program:

Martijn Padding: Baldwine Closeups

Klas Torstensson: Colour Consort

Yannis Kyriakides: Observatorium

Louis Andriessen: Workers Union