ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW ORCHESTRA GLANERT > REQUIEM for HIERONYMUS BOSCH MARKUS STENZ, CONDUCTOR Photo Renske Vrolijk
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ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW ORCHESTRA GLANERT > REQUIEM FOR HIERONYMUS BOSCH MARKUS STENZ, CONDUCTOR photo Renske Vrolijk Aga Mikolaj, Ursula Hesse von den Steinen and Detlev Glanert after the performance. www.rcoamsterdam.com Detlev Glanert Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch (version 2016) after the Requiem Mass and medieval poetry for solo voices, choruses and orchestra Recorded Live at Concertgebouw Amsterdam on 5 November 2016 NTR ZaterdagMatinee | World premiere recording Commissioned by Jheronimus Bosch 500 and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, with financial support from the Ernst von Siemens Foundation and the Eduard van Beinum Foundation. photo Renske Vrolijk Detlev Glanert Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Detlev Glanert Markus Stenz, conductor Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch (version 2016) choir 1 De Demonibus 6 : 1 5 Netherlands Radio Choir 2 Requiem Æternam 6 : 00 Edward Caswell, chorus master 3 Gula 3 : 30 4 Absolve Domine 3 : 29 soloists 5 Ira 2 : 4 1 David Wilson-Johnson, voice 6 Dies Iræ 7 : 35 Aga Mikolaj, soprano 7 Invidia 2 : 40 Ursula Hesse von den Steinen, mezzo-soprano 8 Juste judex 5 : 20 Gerhard Siegel, tenor 9 Organ solo 3 : 1 4 Christof Fischesser, bass 10 Acedia 4 : 2 3 Leo van Doeselaar, organ 1 1 Domine, Jesu Christe 3 : 34 12 Superbia 3 : 39 13 Sanctus 3 : 1 4 14 Luxuria 2 : 1 3 15 Agnus Dei 7 : 54 16 Avaritia 1 : 5 7 17 Libera Me & Peccatum 6 : 24 18 In Paradisum 8 : 58 total playing time 83 : 09 www.rcoamsterdam.com Heavenly judgement for the sinner EN Hieronymous B. Lux aeterna, eternal light. Or is it Dies Irae, day of rage? of the Visions of the Hereafter made a profound impression: Confronted with hard, chilly reality, it is often no easy job, ‘What a dark, unforeseen and above all grandiose vision even for the most undeviating believer, to persist along speaks from these paintings. Like a distant yet kindred spirit the shining path to heavenly paradise. Worldly vexations of the English artist Turner. Looking at just one of Bosch’s and day-to-day pangs sometimes go to reduce the great, paintings is like seeing hundreds of pictures in a museum redeeming light at the end of the tunnel to a mere flicker. – such an inexhaustible imagination,’ thus Glanert as he Light and darkness, heaven and hell each function as sings the praises of his idol. ‘In his work you see the way interconnecting vessels. Darkness cannot exist without light. of life and philosophy of his own time so well reflected. In In turn, light shines with greater clarity and glory when the Middle Ages humankind was of little value. Feelings of combatting the obscure, dark side of life. Art and humour angst, and the harshness of life, drove everyone into the are the weapons of perspective, the means to play these path of faith. To lead a good life was to enter paradise.’ two forces off against each other, and Hieronymus Bosch Light and darkness, good and evil were never spotlighted understood that as no other artist. The most celebrated so contrastingly as in the medieval world of Bosch. The master ever brought forth by ’s-Hertogenbosch now has commission to compose the Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch his own requiem, full of light and darkness. A Requiem for was the very thing Glanert was looking for. Here at last Hieronymus Bosch, written by the German composer and was the opportunity to bestow a mass for the dead upon ‘lord of the opera’ Detlev Glanert (1960). A most perceptive the enigmatic Bosch. But do not expect the composer to composer and an unadulterated expert in the art of living, come up with a sweet-sounding homage, for Bosch is to in his countless operas and other music he is unsurpassed be subjected to nothing less than heavenly judgement. ‘My in the expression of the inner drama and hidden cravings of Requiem takes place several seconds after Bosch’s decease. humankind. His soul is condemned to go on its way to purgatory. Prior to the great judgement, a hearing is held. The key question,’ Bosch as inspiration Glanert tells with mischievous pleasure, is ‘whether our The paintings of Bosch have offered boundless inspiration to Bosch will go to paradise or be destined for hell’. A dramatic Glanert. He saw them again in all their glory at the recent setting of this caliber is hardly wasted on the composer. We photo Ronald Knapp major retrospective in ’s-Hertogenbosch. The four panels hear the archangel Michael scouring all seven deadly sins in search of the slightest blot on Bosch’s escutcheon. ‘Will talked-about opera Joseph Süß (1999) Glanert puts his finger our poor Bosch obtain the right to sit next to Lazarus in in unmistakable terms on several black pages from German paradise? Be not afraid, the archangel will find nothing sinful history. The work tells of the eighteenth-century Jewish – redemption is nigh,’ Glanert says with a smile. banker Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, a personal adviser to Duke Karl Alexander von Württemberg in Stuttgart. Among the Sweet sin Protestant population Joseph Süß (1698-1738) is not loved, Thus the battle between good and evil, cast in a drama with and after the decease of the duke waves of hatred surge up, a sharp touch of irony. Glanert is in all things the perfect and Süß is sentenced to death. Two hundred years later such contemporary opera composer. He knows what can and manifestations of anti-Semitism were to be grist to the mill what cannot be had in the world. In his dramatic works, evil of the evil Nazi regime. In the ridiculous propaganda film always lurks just around the corner. Human emotions are Jud Süß (1940), Oppenheimer’s execution is falsely presented brought to a head, and from their seething storm Glanert and exploited to stir up anti-Semitism once again. Glanert’s creates operatic gems: his famous opera Caligula (2006), opera Joseph Süß rightly searches for new answers, however for example, is a character study in darkness of the mad distressing they may be. Glanert’s quest for light and Roman emperor. The composer’s imagination is sparked off darkness sometimes has a lighter touch. The devil himself by the unfathomable twists and grimy caverns of the human makes his appearance in the comic opera Scherz, Satire, Ironie subconscious. ‘Indeed, in the end our dark side is more und tiefere Bedeutung (2000), after a play by Christian Grabbe interesting than the good that resides in us. Libraries have dating from 1827. Evil pays a visit to a petty bourgeois been filled with writings on the dark aspect of humankind. village, with all its painful and hilarious consequences. We usually embrace that which is good as the normal part ‘Everyone in the village suddenly has a little devil inside, of our life, but something continues to gnaw at us. In secret even the real devil is scared stiff – the people are worse we want to explore that other, hidden side. It is like the first than he,’ Glanert winks. The cunning game between good small bite from the apple of the Earthly Paradise. Adam and and evil, paradise and the fall, all this is a real field day to Eve want to keep away from it, but the temptation is too Glanert. Hence it is hardly surprising that he crossed paths big, and sweet sin is born. That’s how human kind is made.’ with Hieronymus Bosch. ‘But this Bosch Requiem is not an In his orchestral works too, such as Theatrum Bestiarium opera, there is little theatrical action. Look at it more as an (2005), and the Third Symphony (1996) with its references oratorio,’ the composer emphasises, ‘as an inward spectacle, to the bloody king Macbeth, Glanert does not shrink from like the St Matthew Passion.’ the gruesome, beastly character of mankind. In his much Realist state opera, so often did I go to watch. I saw Die Soldaten Music has always been second nature to Glanert. From his as a twelve-year-old, and I was so shocked that I went back childhood days in Hamburg he learnt to play the trumpet, sixteen times. It is a masterpiece, and I still hold it in my horn, piano and double bass. In his twenties he took heart.’ As a composer Glanert draws his lessons from the composition lessons with Diether de la Motte, Günter past. The clarity of his language continues to grow, without Friedrichs and Frank Michael Beyer. But the most important too many lush harmonies or an excess of piercing, dissonant influence on his musical thought was the composer and chords. In his operas and concert works he aims above all to kindred spirit Hans Werner Henze. From 1985-89 Henze pried touch the very heart of his audience. ‘I listen with my eyes open the doors in Glanert’s compositional subconscious. and look with my ears,’ he sums up. ‘He was able to bring across logical connections between modern sound worlds and the great musical tradition. As a Carmina Burana composer one must search for communication with one’s The Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch presented a new challenge listeners. I am a realist and not a typical revolutionary. So to Glanert and indeed to the orchestra. It is a eighty-minute I believe it is a great mistake to deny the musical past, oratorio, for which he has thought out a sophisticated whether it is Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss or Alban structure. The eighteen-movement work combines the Berg. As a composer one must deal and not break with classical Latin requiem texts with passages from the that great tradition.’ Among Glanert’s musical heroes are medieval manuscript collection Carmina Burana.