viola concerto Jeppe Moulijn (1972) + 4 sea poems

February 23, 2011 at 6:28 PM

On 20 december 2010 I heard the world premiere of the viola concerto of Dutch composer Jeppe Moulijn who was conducting an amateur orchestra Tone-art-orchestra in Leiden Holland. Soloist is Francien Scharborn. When she was young she played violin, but now viola.

Also his 4 sea poems (in English) for soprano + orchestra:

From Nigel Keay
Posted on February 26, 2011 at 10:49 PM

Thanks for posting. So far I've just been listening to the Viola Concerto. It's great to see new work being presented by such committed players. Personally I don't think it's really necessary to describe the orchestra as amateur; they did a very fine job from what I could hear given the usual degraded youtube audio quality. I say that because I know how extremely difficult it is to get a new viola concerto recognized and into the repertoire. There is an ever growing list of them and I've seen occasions on some sites where certain writers don't even want to see a concerto listed if it hasn't been played by a professional orchestra. One needs all the publicity one can get, so better to just say nothing than label the orchestra "amateur". The recording came across as maybe a little dry, but the orchestration was audible and I enjoyed it more once I put the audio through a better sound system.

I really appreciate the work that goes into writing a work of that scale, and the investment on the part of the soloist to present it - very nicely played. I think new music takes an investment on the part of the listener too, and sometimes several hearings are required to assimilate a work. New work can provoke interesting reactions when first heard - have a look at what viola player Ann Frederking wrote about another new viola concerto here. I particularly enjoyed the end of the Concerto and intend to listen to it some more.

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viola concerto Jeppe Moulijn (1972) + 4 sea poems

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