The new Joey Roukens, his Second Violin Concerto, is at least as good as his earlier work. It is to be hoped that violinist Simone Lamsma may play the piece very often.
As a composer, you have to be of good character to make an impression between Wagner and Beethoven. Joey Roukens (42) did just that on Friday with the world premiere of his Second Violin Concerto, titled Out of the Deep, which is at least as good as his acclaimed First Symphony. Top violinist Simone Lamsma was the dream soloist.
The narrative overture from Tannhäuser makes us conclude that Markus Stenz should conduct opera music by Wagner more often in the Netherlands. After the interval, he leads the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra vigorously yet nimbly in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. But we mainly came for the new Roukens.
Which begins with a hefty rhythmic salvo and an orchestral plunge into the depths, from which the brass gives a bellowing warning, which the composer compares to a foghorn. Then Lamsma sets in with a poignant lament. A menacing tutti interrupts her.
And so, in four through-composed movements, this dark and wonderful piece swings constantly between agitation and mourning. Roukens’ music is imaginative, but also purposeful. Every note played by this large orchestra with stage-wide percussion feels indispensable.
Sometimes the orchestra sighs along with the solo violin. Even more often, they battle against each other with intersecting rhythms and offensive outbursts, in which Roukens inimitably blends caustic dissonance with mambo energy and big band-like verve.
In the virtuoso solo passages, Lamsma swings, climbing higher and higher, between frenetic grimness and lyrical gloom. The high final note leaves her shivering fragile and lonely. And now let’s hope she gets to play this concerto often and everywhere.
Composers in the crosshairs of our attention