Opus '69

various artists compilation - Opus '69

This is another LP of Dutch avant-garde music from Radio Nederland, this time from 1969 as the title says. The two sides of the LP are two separate programs that were offered for free to radio stations outside of the Netherlands.

From the liner notes by Dr. Jos Wouters, Head, Music Department, Radio Nederland:

The same as in previous years "OPUS 69" consists of two half-hour programmes devoted to new trends in Dutch contemporary music.

The first programme contains two works related in style of writing though the result sounds quite different.

The work "World within world", composed by Wil Eisma, was written for four instruments (oboe, violin, viola and cello) and has the intimate character of the chamber-music atmosphere.

The composition "Clockwise and anti-clockwise" by Peter Schat - in the opinion of many the most important representative of the Dutch avant-garde group - is a work in which a technique of motionless sound-fields forms the most characteristic element. The ensemble of 16 wind instruments has been split up into five independently operating groups. Each movement of the composition is separated from the others by a Catalan battle-song from the civil war period.

The second programme includes a composition by Jan van Vlijmen, intended to be a musical play by five wood instruments, with motifs and sounds in a twelve-tone handling of the material.

Contrary to this we find a work for soprano and orchestra "Haiku II" by Ton de Leeuw, in which the composer made use especially of the relation between sound and space. This music is related to the Far East atmosphere.

Tracklisting:

programme I

1. Wil Eisma - World Within World {13:19}

performed by Netherlands Oboe Quartet

2. Peter Schat - Clockwise and Anti-Clockwise {13:11}

performed by Hilversum Radio Wind Ensemble; conducted by Peter Schat

programme II

1. Jan van Vlijmen - Quintet for Wind Instruments {11:55}

performed by Ardito Wind Quintet

2. Ton de Leeuw - Haiku II {14:47}

performed by Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and soprano Dorothy Dorow; conducted by Edo de Waart

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