BELINFANTE QUARTET
January 26, 2025 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
JUBILEE CONCERT
With this concert we celebrate the 25th anniversary of our concert series Chamber Music in De Hoop.
(2:00 p.m. lecture about De Hoop in rectory)
Since its founding in 2016, the Belinfante Quartet has received much praise for its inventive programming, which pairs well-known masterpieces with hidden gems.
In this programme, the hidden gem is the piece “Baile” by the contemporary English composer Rhiannon Randle (1993 – ), performed between the string quartets of the great
masters Benjamin Britten and Joseph Haydn.
For the concert, which starts at 3 p.m. as usual, you can reserve seats via our website www.schuilkerkdehoop.nl .
HISTORY OF DE HOOP
Before the concert there will be a slide show about the History of De Hoop by Jaap Haag in the adjacent rectory. Starts at 2:00 PM.
The slide show is freely accessible. Due to the limited number of places you can register for this (separately from the concert) via info@schuilkerkdehoop.nl stating your name and number of people (full = full).
After the concert we would like to raise a glass, offered by the board, to the future of Diemen’s own concert hall!
La Serenissima
Explores how we interact with nature and the places we love and which we call home. With the influence of Gustav Mahler and his philosophy on protecting and admiring nature, we look at the last string quartet by Benjamin Britten, heavily influenced by Mahler’s music and life. Britten examines the places he loved – Venice, and the English countryside in Suffolk which he called home. It concludes themes in his last opera ‘Death of Venice‘, taking and resolving its musical themes and harmonies. The quartet closes with a fifth movement titled ‘La Serenissima’ – Britten’s own music of Venice, a place he greatly loved.
Through Haydn, who became known as the Father of the String Quartet, we look at his writing through the context of his time living with the Esterházy Court in Austria, and his visits to London. He often imbued Austrian folk melodies into his works, giving insights into how his home and surroundings in the countryside influenced his musical world.
Today we will premiere a new work by British composer Rhiannon Randle, who looks at her musical home – Irish Folk Music, in Baile. Expect sounds of Highland bagpipes and a fantasia of Rhiannon’s Irish music inspired jig melody. This undergoes a whirlwind of transformations leading to a céilí, eventually metamorphosing into a slip jig and reel, and bringing everything together in a resolute homecoming.
Baile
With thanks to the Vaughan Williams Foundation for their support for this new work.
Baile (pronounced ”bally”): ‘home’ in the Irish language.
”What is home? Where’s my home?” – Montagu Slater, libretto to Peter Grimes, Act III sc. ii.
How does a composer define their musical ‘home’? Could it be described as the meeting place of the various traditions that have informed and shaped their musicianship? These are the questions I asked myself when The Belinfante Quartet commissioned me to write a piece to feature in a programme alongside Britten, Mahler and traditional music. The assimilation of traditional music with Western Art music was a focal-point for both Britten and Mahler: from Britten’s arrangements of British, Irish and French folk songs and his affection for Balinese gamelan, to Mahler’s integration of his native Bohemian music, folk dances such as the Landler, and the impression of a Klezmer band in his First Symphony. Both composers also struggled with aspects of their national and musical identities: Mahler’s German-speaking Bohemian upbringing combined with his Jewish heritage gave him a sense of being permanently in exile. While Britten’s unfulfilled dream to study under Berg, his numerous French influences and his ambivalence towards contemporary music traditions in Britain, arguably set him apart from the status quo. A stance which was only intensified by his pacifistic exile to America at the outbreak of the Second World War. And yet, Britten had a very strong sense of what ‘home’ meant to him. His works such as Peter Grimes are a testament to this.
Exploring my own musical homes during the process of composing Baile has served as a creative provocation, assisting in an important shift in the expression of my compositional voice. For me, Baile represents a cornerstone in my journey towards a reverent and heartfelt syncretism of different types of music which define me. As a classically-trained violinist; a composer of Western contemporary art music; and a fiddler heavily influenced by the Donegal fiddle tradition from Northwest Ireland. The musical basis for Baile is my own double jig in two parts…’
From Rhiannon Randle’s programme notes on Baile.