concert programmes

The Agonies of Love and Joie de Vivre – music from the Renaissance and the Baroque
Here, two centuries of love are the subject of the singer Joachim Diessner von Isensee and the Pindakaas Saxophone Quartet:

music full of passion and suffering, intense joie de vivre and sweet melancholy. No one has managed to grasp the spirit of the time quite like the lutenist John Dowland, whose music could be described as the ‘Renaissance Blues’.

Even today Dowland’s songs convey spirited, melancholic tales of travelling peddlers, the courtly love of aristocratic women and dying heroes. Counter tenor Joachim Diessner von Isenee studied at the Royal Music Conservatoire in The Hague and worked together with Phillip Langshaw in Cologne, as well as Sigiswald Kuijken, Jordi Savall and Hermann Max. He has sung at the Opera of Cologne, Frankfurt, and Bayreuth.

Accompanied by the powerful and versatile saxophone, an exciting new sound experience emerges from the ‘old’ music of Orlando di Lasso, Giovanni Gabrieli, Henry Purcell and Georg Friedrich Händel.

Countertenor Joachim Diessner von Isenee
. „Küsse nun ein Jedermann / wie er weiß, will, soll und kann /Ich nur und die Liebste wissen / wie wir uns recht sollen küssen!“
(Paul Fleming)

A Journey Through the Centuries

Playful virtuosity lies at the heart of the Pindakaas Saxophone Quartet’s stage performances. The programme they play here enters the musical worlds of the baroque, classical, tango Nuevo, and modern styles.

Entitled ‘Voyage’, it offers a constantly changing journey over some six centuries with musical masterpieces from every epoch, ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart right up to Kurt Weill.

In the process the saxophone opens up whole worlds of sound comparable to those not only of the organ and the orchestral music of the baroque masters, but also to the elegant chamber music of the classical and romantic periods.

And then, with breathtaking virtuosity, the Quartet takes a daring leap into the now seldom explored repertoire of works originally composed for Saxophone Quartets, most notably Piazzolla’s melancholic tangos and artful modern jazz.

‘Living it up’ – Pop, Jazz and Evergreens

Just from the title it is quite clear that a good dose of humour has gone into this entertaining programme.

‘Brause’ (‘Living it up’) isn’t just a fizzy glass of lemonade, the term ‘Brause’ (‘Living it up’) in German brass instrument jargon also meaning ‘to play with gusto’.

A clearly thought out and smart arrangement of jazz classics and evergreens make up this programme of rousing music from Glenn Miller, the Comedian Harmonists, Henry Mancini, Thelonius Monk, the Beatles.

With songs by Bobby McFerrin, Elton John or Stevie Wonder as well, it promises a non-stop listening delight for both young and old. Entertaining fun of the highest degree!

Scenes from Childhood

It was only long after lovers, war heroes and gods had been fully exhausted as musical themes that composers discovered children.

When Robert Schumann composed his famous collection of ‘Scenes from Childhood’ it was not merely intended for those who were learning the piano. Schumann wanted them to achieve much more, to conjure up “the dream of those days, which are now long gone”.

The Pindakaas Saxophone Quartet recalls the visions of a variety of composers and phases of childhood, as they expressed their childhood dreams through music.

As well as Robert Schumann this will provide the opportunity to hear works by Peter Tschaikovsky, Claude Debussy, Francis Poulenc und Chick Corea as well as the modern ‘Gameboy-Fantasy’ by Marcin Langer.

Extraordinary Worlds of Music

Composers of every epoch, from classical music to film soundtracks, have created a technicoloured array of pieces based on fantasy – musical images of mythical creatures, strange life forms and exotic distant lands.

An expedition into this fairy-tale world unearths a number of unknown works from the hands of many well-known pens: famous masters such as Joseph Haydn, Robert Schumann, Jacques Ibert or Benjamin Britten, all of which sound not so very far removed from Albert Ketèlbey’s painterly theatrical music or the genial film scores of John Williams.

In this fabulous musical world, the audience has the chance to come into contact with the ‘Pink Panther’, fluttering butterflies, camel drawn caravans and creatures from every corner of the world.

Examples:
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): Ochsenmenuett
Albert Ketèlbey (1875-1959): Auf einem persischen Wochenmarkt
Faustin Jeanjean (um 1900): Papillons - Schmetterlinge
Marc Berthomieu (1906-91): Chats
Jacques Ibert (1890-1962): Histoires
Benjamin Britten (1913-76): Insect Pieces
John Williams (*1932): Cantina Band
Henry Mancini (1924-94): Baby Elephant Walk & Pink Panther
Medley: Walt Disney-Filmmusik