Atlantis by Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra / Netherlands Radio Choir / Markus Stenz / Robin de Raaff

Robin de Raaff

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra / Netherlands Radio Choir / Markus Stenz / Robin de Raaff

Atlantis

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917280821
Catnr: CC 72808
Release date: 06 November 2020
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917280821

Catalogue number
CC 72808

Release date
06 November 2020

"Marisol Montalvo darts her coloraturas with aplomb in the face of the abysmal melismas of Mark Stone. Diving in this ocean of music is secured by lifeguard Markus Stenz."

Classica, 01-7-2021

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

Robin de Raaff completed Atlantis in the summer of 2016. The work is one that predominantly seems to progress from light to dark, with voice and instruments frequently melding into an overall sonority. That said, where the text is of major significance, De Raaff uses the voice as a lyrical element to let it soar above the orchestral timbres. To a large extent, Atlantis is based on "Atlantis", the final poem in Hart Crane's collection Bridges. Boulez, the last surviving giant of post-War modernism, passed away while De Raaff was working on Atlantis. "Boulez was the great proponent of modernism. The island that modernism actually was simply disappeared when he died. This is why I felt a homage would be appropriate." As De Raaff has the tonal focus descend more or less chromatically for each stanza, a feeling arises of a sinking movement. He also makes the feeling of sinking away below the mirror surface of the ocean musically understandable by using ever darker sounding instruments. The oratorio Atlantis is not just an argument for the use of contemporary vocal skills as an element of the entire history of music, but also and primarily a warning about stewardship of water and the future of our planet.

Atlantis is een complex en indrukwekkend oratorium van de toonaangevende Nederlandse componist Robin de Raaff. Een uitdaging voor het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest en Groot Omroepkoor, die hen onder leiding van dirigent Markus Stenz, wel is toevertrouwd. Het is een prachtige live-opname ter nagedachtenis aan de Franse componist Pierre Boulez, de laatste der modernisten.

Robin de Raaff rondde Atlantis in de zomer van 2016 af. Het is een werk dat voornamelijk van licht naar donker lijkt te bewegen, waarbij stem en instrumenten vaak samensmelten tot een volle klank. Daar waar de tekst van groot belang is, gebruikt De Raaff de stem als een lyrisch element. Het is alsof de stem zich verheft boven de orkestrale klanken.

Atlantis is grotendeels gebaseerd op ‘Atlantis’, het laatste gedicht van de verzameling Bridges van de Amerikaanse dichter Hart Crane. Pierre Boulez, de laatst overlevende grootheid van het naoorlogse modernisme, stierf terwijl De Raaff aan Atlantis werkte. "Boulez was de grote voorvechter van het modernisme. Het eiland dat modernisme eigenlijk was, verdween domweg toen hij stierf. Daarom vond ik een eerbetoon gepast."

Aangezien Robin de Raaff het tonale zwaartepunt voor elke strofe min of meer chromatisch laat dalen, ontstaat het gevoel of je zinkt. Door steeds donkerder klinkende instrumenten te gebruiken, maakt de componist dat zinkende gevoel onder het reflecterende zeeoppervlak muzikaal begrijpelijk. Het oratorium Atlantis is niet alleen een argument voor het gebruik van hedendaagse vocale vaardigheden als een element van de gehele muziekgeschiedenis, maar ook en vooral om ons te wijzen op onze verantwoordelijkheid voor het water en de toekomst van onze planeet.

Robin de Raaff stellte Atlantis im Sommer 2016 fertig. Es ist ein Werk, das überwiegend von Hell zu Dunkel zu schreiten scheint, wenn Stimme und Instrumente sich oft zu einem Gesamtklang mischen. Doch wo der Text von großer Bedeutung ist, setzt De Raaff die Stimme als lyrisches Element ein und lässt sie über den Orchestertimbres gleiten. Atlantis basiert zu einem großen Teil auf „Atlantis“, dem letzten Gedicht in Hart Cranes Sammlung Bridges. Boulez, der letzte überlebende Gigant der Nachkriegsmoderne, starb, während De Raaff an Atlantis arbeitete. „Boulez war der große Verfechter der Moderne. Die Insel, die die Moderne eigentlich darstellte, verschwand einfach, als er starb. Deshalb fand ich eine Hommage passend.“ Da De Raaff den tonalen Schwerpunkt für jede Strophe mehr oder weniger chromatisch absteigen lässt, kommt ein Gefühl von Sinken auf. Er macht das Gefühl, unter die spiegelnde Meeresoberfläche zu sinken, musikalisch verständlich, indem er immer dunkler klingende Instrumente verwendet. Das Oratorium Atlantis ist nicht nur ein Argument für der Gebrauch zeitgenössischer Stimmfertigkeiten als Element der gesamten Musikgeschichte, sondern auch und vor allem eine Warnung bezüglich der Verantwortlichkeit gegenüber der Gewässer und der Zukunft unserer Welt.

Artist(s)

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra gave its first concert on 7 October 1945, led by its founder and ‘first conductor‘ Albert van Raalte, on Radio “Herrijzend Nederland”. Initially the orchestra spent most of its time in studios working on a large number of recordings for the public broadcasting system. The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic featured prominently in the Saturday Matinee as soon as the series started in 1961, and has continued to give frequent live performances ever since. The celebrated Saturday Matinee has hosted many legendary concerts. Illustrious soloists such as Kathleen Ferrier, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Clara Haskil and Jean-Pierre Rampal have shared the stage with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2004, the three classical orchestral formations of the broadcasting 15 system were transformed into two: the present Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic. In 2006, these two orchestras, the Netherlands Radio Choir and the Metropole Orchestra joined the Dutch public broadcasting organisation NPO.
The Radio Philharmonic Orchestra has been conducted by great names such as Bernard Haitink, Jean Fournet, Hans Vonk, Sergiu Comissiona and Edo de Waart. Jaap van Zweden was named its chief conductor in September 2005. The orchestra has also worked with numerous famed guest conductors such as Leopold Stokowski, Kirill Kondrashin, Antál Dorati, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur and Valery Gergiev. Soon after its founding, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic found itself foremost in Dutch musical life in the number of performances and the diversity of its repertoire, with a predilection for Dutch and contemporary works in its programming. It has honed another facet of its striking profile with a great many opera concertante performances. The orchestra has an extensive discography, ranging from legendary LPs recorded in the 1970s under such conductors as Leopold Stokowski and Antal Doráti to Jean Fournet’s much-lauded renderings of French repertoire. Under Edo de Waart, not only did it release its legendary Wagner interpretations, but also the complete orchestral works of Rachmaninov. CDs with work by contemporary composers such as Jonathan Harvey, Klas Torstensson, Jan van Vlijmen and Stravinsky have garnered prizes and much acclaim.

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Netherlands Radio Choir

The Netherlands Radio Choir is the largest professional choir in the Netherlands. Since its founding in 1946, the choir has performed a broad repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music and has been synonymous with top-level music performed with passion. It works in various sizes and formations, depending on the music concerned and the conductor.
First official chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Choir was Kenneth Montgomery. After him came Robin Gritton, Martin Wright, Simon Halsey, Celso Antunes and Gijs Leenaars. As from the 2015-2016 season Klaas Stok is chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Choir. Michael Gläser has been its permanent guest conductor since September 2010.
The Netherlands Radio Choir has worked with guest conductors such as Marcus Creed and Peter Dijkstra, with early music specialists as Frans Brüggen, Philippe Herreweghe and Ton Koopman, and in the symphonic choral repertoire with Jaap van Zweden, James Gaffigan, Markus Stenz and Sir Simon Rattle, among others.
The choir often performs with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in public radio concert series, and it is regularly invited to perform with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
Since the early 1980s, the Netherlands Radio Choir has been a frequent guest in the Saturday Matinee series of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In these concerts the choir has regularly performed pre- mieres and works by contemporary composers such as Ligeti, Boulez, Birtwistle, Kagel, Reich, Wagemans, Adès, Adams and Vleggaar. Most concerts of the Netherlands Radio Choir are live broadcasted by Radio 4. On CD the Netherlands Radio Choir excels in a broad repertoire including music by Keuris, MacMillan, Mahler, Poulenc, Rossini and Wagner.

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Markus Stenz (conductor)

Markus Stenz is Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (since 2012) and Principal Guest Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from the 2015/2016 onwards.
His previous positions have included most recently General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister and Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra (posts he relinquished in the summer of 2014). Markus Stenz was Artistic Director of the Montepulciano Festival (1989 – 1995), Principal Conductor of the London Sinfonietta (1994 – 1998) – one of the most renowned ensembles for contemporary music and Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (1998 – 2004). Trained at the School of Music in Cologne under Volker Wangenheim and at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, Markus Stenz has held the positions of Artistic Director of the Montepulciano Festival (1989 – 1995), Principal Conductor of the London Sinfonietta (1994 – 1998) – one of the most renowned ensembles for contemporary music. As Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (1998 – 2004) Markus Stenz broadened his repertoire and established his career as an international conductor.
He made his debut as an opera conductor at La Fenice in Venice and has since conducted many world premieres and first performances including Henze’s Das Verratene Meer in Berlin, Venus und Adonis at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and L’Upupa at the 2003 Salzburg Festival. Markus Stenz has appeared at many of the world’s major opera houses and international festivals including La Scala in Milan, La Monnaie in Brussels, English National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Stuttgart Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Edinburgh International Festival, the Bregenz Festival (with the world premiere of Solaris by Detlev Glanert in July 2012) and Salzburg Festival.
His notable opera performances in Cologne have included Wagner’s Ring, Lohengrin,Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Parsifal as well as Janacek’s Jenufa and Katya Kabanova. Markus Stenz conducts many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Berlin Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Vienna Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and the Symphony Orchestras of the Bayerische Rundfunk, the HR, the WDR and the NDR. In the United States these have included the Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
His comprehensive discography includes many award-winning productions. His recording of the complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler with the Gürzenich Orchestra (Oehms Classics), for instance, was given an enthusiasic international reception, and was selected among the "Quarterly Critic's Choice" issued by the German Record Critics' Award Association with the recording of Mahler's 5th. The discography was recently enlarged by the addition of recordings of the world premiere of James MacMillan’s St. Luke Passion and the Dutch première of K. A. Hartmnann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus (Challenge Classics) with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest as well as various Schönberg-recordings with the Gürzenich-Orchestra Cologne.
The 2015/2016 season leads Markus Stenz all over the world, from São Paulo to Shanghai. He will again conduct premières and world premières, among others the German premiere of a Cello Concerto by Pascal Dusapin with the cellist Alisa Weilerstein and an orchestra work by Dieter Ammann with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich in June 2016.
Markus Stenz has been awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal North

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Composer(s)

Robin de Raaff

Robin de Raaff (Breda, 1968) discovered his own diverse musical world through playing classical piano as well as bass guitar from a very early age. After being introduced to the legend and legacy of Jaco Pastorius, De Raaff’s musical world expanded explosively as an instrumentalist. Parallel with this early development he created his own music and lyrics for his Band where instrumental sections grew in significance, ultimately in to completely scored instrumental works. These instrumental compositions led him to enrol as a student of composition.
De Raaff is of the generation of Dutch composers emerging in the nineties. He first studied composition with Geert van Keulen at the Amsterdam Conservatory and later with Theo Loevendie, graduating cum laude in 1997. Still being a student in 1995 he encountered Pierre Boulez in a Masterclass who praised his String Quartet No. 1 “Athomus” creating a whole new momentum to his development and career. In 1999 De Raaff had the privilege of being invited to work as George Benjamin’s only composition student at the Royal College of Music in London where he also studied with Julian Anderson.
In 2000 De Raaff was invited to the renowned Tanglewood Music Center as the ‘Senior Composition Fellow’ which was the beginning of an ongoing relationship resulting in a series of commissions and performances (Piano Concerto No. 1 for the Festival of Contemporary Music and Entangled Tales for the Boston Symphony Orchestra) and performances of his septet Ennea’s Domein and Un Visage d’Emprunt. For 2015 De Raaff was commissioned to compose a Fanfare dedicated to the 75th Anniversary of the Tanglewood Music Center. His residency at Tanglewood in 2000 was the beginning of a bigger exposure with performances and residencies in North America through festivals and theaters such as: The Aspen Music Festival, Cabrillo Festival (Santa Cruz), State of the Union Festival (London), ISCM World Music Days, The Banff Center, CBC Parry Sound Festival (Ontario), Takefu International Chamber Music Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Ultima Contemporary Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center (New York), Betty Oliphant Theatre and Glenn Gould Studio (Toronto).
After a creative period of nearly 10 years, De Raaff finished his first opera RAAFF in 2004, which was commissioned by the Dutch National Opera in a co-production with the Holland Festival. The birth of this opera started with De Raaff’s success at a master class for young composers with Pierre Boulez organised by DNO in 1995.His second opera, also commissioned by DNO, resulted in Waiting for Miss Monroe (2012), which was received with much acclaim by the international press including The New York Times, Der Tagesspiegel and Der Süddeutsche Zeitung.
De Raaff’s Violin Concerto No. 1 “Angelic echoes” (2008, written for Tasmin Little and Jaap van Zweden) was selected as the Best Orchestral Work of the year 2008 in the Dutch composition competition Toonzetters. His special interest in this genre led him to compose many Concertos of which his Percussion Concerto (2014 commissioned by The New Juilliard Ensemble and premiered in Lincoln Center), is the most recent one.
In September 2016, his Oratorio “Atlantis”, an In Memoriam Pierre Boulez, was successfully premiered in Vredenburg, Utrecht (the Netherlands), to date De Raaff’s largest work for the concert stage. Early in 2017, his Symphony No. 4 “Melodies unheard” was premiered during a concert tour with the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra as part of his term as Composer in Residence.
The 2nd Sonata for Violin and Piano “North Atlantic Light” was given its world premiere in the Kurt Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall on the 4th of June 2018. It is based on the famous painting by Willem de Kooning, a fellow countryman of De Raaff. The larger vision on this painting, Violin Concerto No. 2 “North Atlantic Light”, was premiered in the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, both versions were written for Tosca Opdam.
With the recent world premiere of Sfera for large orchestra in the esteemed ZaterdagMatinee, De Raaff finished his Symphony No 5 “Allegory of Time, of which Sfera is movement I and Unisono for large orchestra movement II.
Commissioned by the Holland Festival for their 75th Anniversary De Raaff composed his Piano Concerto No. 2 “Circulus”, premiered by Ralph van Raat, Matthias Pintscher conducting the Radio Filharmonic Oerchestra.
For 22 successive years, De Raaff has been Professor of Composition and Instrumentation at the Composition Department of the University for the Arts in Rotterdam, Codarts.

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Press

Marisol Montalvo darts her coloraturas with aplomb in the face of the abysmal melismas of Mark Stone. Diving in this ocean of music is secured by lifeguard Markus Stenz.
Classica, 01-7-2021

The interpretation of the American soprano Marisol Montalvo is splendid and so is that of the British baritone Mark Stone. [...] Atlantis is not only an argument for the use of contemporary vocal skills as an element of all musical history, but also a warning to better manage our planet.
Scherzo, 31-5-2021

Although a live recording is of course never flawless, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra plays excellent and the Groot Omroepkoor sings amazing.
Luister, 04-12-2020

According to De Raaff, with the death of Pierre Boulez, the island of modernism has disappeared, just like Atlantis sunk in the sea, hence the homage to him.
Mania, 19-11-2020

In summary: no less than an enormous sensation to experience this CD, which really gives you the feeling of sitting in the hall. I did not experience the - well-deserved - applause as a disadvantage, quite the contrary! " "The technical recording result - a tribute to Bert van der Wolf and the composer who was also explicitly involved in the mastering - has the same qualification as the performance. Excellent!
Opus Klassiek, 16-11-2020

The orchestral playing is certainly brilliant and precise.
Music web International, 13-11-2020

A great success and a remarkable work.
Musique classique & Co, 07-11-2020

On the recording of the concert on 23-9-2016 in Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht, the American soprano Marisol Montalvo, the British baritone Mark Stone and the Netherlands Radio Choir shine in singing leading roles.
Mania, 06-11-2020