Joël Bons:
Cellist Lidy Blijdorp is a special musical personality: every tone she plays has an enormous intensity. On September 10th Lidy will give a world premiere of Trailblazer together with the Residentie Orkest in the Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague. The piece was commissioned by the Residentie Orkest and written for cello and a chamber orchestra of thirty musicians: six wind players, two percussionists and twenty-two strings. This first performance will be conducted by Leonard Elschenbroich.
A trailblazer is someone who is the first to do something, a pioneer. The title refers to the role of the soloist: she takes the initiative, comes up with ideas and stimulates the orchestral musicians to join in. They in turn react by taking over ideas, commenting on them or making use of them. The result is a lively game of ping-pong, in which sparks fly at one moment and silence is explored the next.
When I started working on this piece, the first question was what the relationship between the soloist and the orchestra would be. I did not want a traditional ‘concert’ in which the soloist displays all her/his virtuosity and the orchestra mainly offers a warm bed. While composing, it became clear that the soloist would always come up with new ideas and ‘nudge’ the orchestra. This then became the basic idea. Also important: that there is joy.
What always makes me enthusiastic is (the harbinger of) something new. Pioneers, trailblazers – these are the people we need, the people who innovate and inspire. A century ago there was suddenly the Sacre, the Bauhaus… – so new and exciting, so masterful. Now there are people all over the world who develop initiatives for a better world, from inventions to make the ocean plastic-free to effective altruism. That gives us hope.
Composers in the crosshairs of our attention