Performer

Erik Bosgraaf, solo recorders

Programme

Mediaeval Times

Anonymous

L’Ontellecto Divino

The 16th and 17th centuries

Giovanni Bassano (1550–1617)

Ricercate Terza & Quarta

Jacob van Eyck (1589/90–1657)

Selected pieces from Der Fluyten Lust-hof

(The recorder’s garden of delights)

Preludium of Voorspel

Phantasia

Comagain

Lavolette

Psalm 118

Engels Nachtegaeltje / Den Nachtegael

Wat zalmen op den Avond doen

The 18th century

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767)

Fantasia 1 in C major TWV 40:2

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)

Partita in C major 

after BWV 816 (arr. Thiemo Wind)

Allemande – Courante – Sarabande – Bourrée

New music for an old instrument

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)

Piece No. 3 

Luciano Berio (1925–2003)

Gesti (1966)

Luc Houtkamp (1953)

Selection from Suite in Old Style 

Theo Loevendie (1930)

Reflex (2017)

Erik Bosgraaf (1980)

Appoggiatura

Programme Notes

Erik Bosgraaf – Solo Through the Ages

From mediaeval to our modern times, music has become increasingly complex and multi-layered. Nevertheless, throughout the ages there have always been composers and performers who have continued to believe in the power of monophony. Recorder virtuoso Erik Bosgraaf is such a performer, as he demonstrates on this musical time travel. After a mediaeval piece and ricercata by Giovanni Bassano, a special place has been set up for Jacob van Eyck and his Der Fluyten Lust-hof (The Recorder’s Garden of Delights). This blind municipal bell player of Utrecht entertained the strollers in the city’s St. John’s Churchyard on beautiful summer evenings with virtuoso recorder variations on the top hits of his time. During the baroque period, Telemann was one of the greatest advocates of monophony, as demonstrated by a large number of fantasies for various instruments including the flute or recorder. Beautiful solo partitas and sonatas by Bach have survived for violin, cello, and flute. However, behind four movements from his French Suite BWV 816 for keyboard, a monophonous partita seems to be hidden as well. In the 20th century, Luciano Berio began to explore and stretch the possibilities of instruments by composing solo works that he called Sequenza. The piece he made for Frans Brüggen based on this idea, however, was given the title Gesti. Air, fingers, tongue, even the performer’s voice: the playing technique is completely deconstructed here. Luc Houtkamp and Theo Loevendie composed their solo works especially for Erik Bosgraaf. The master concludes his journey with notes that resulted from his own imagination.