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Hout – Louis Andriessen

On 6 June, Louis Andriessen would have turned 83. A fitting moment to pay tribute to one of the most influential composers of our time. Asko|Schönberg premiered many of Andriessen's operas at the Holland Festival. At some point the Australian composer Mary Finsterer followed his composition lessons at the Royal Conservatory. Her latest opera Antarctica, performed by Asko|Schönberg and others, can be seen at the Holland Festival on 5 and 6 June.

In the series Stairway to Music, Asko|Schönberg publish a preview on this festival webiste of the cinematic adaptation of Andriessen's composition Hout (1991) on 6 June, to mark the anniversary of Andriessen's birth.

Stairway to Music is an online collection of works from Asko|Schönberg's surprising and rich repertoire. A musical and cinematographic exploration, shot at unique locations throughout the Netherlands.

With Hout, the ensemble shows itself from its most virtuoso side. Although the work is in principle a canon, the successive voices are so close together that it sounds more like a unison melody with branches. Those 'branches' can also be taken literally, as references to tree branches. Hout/Wood, in other words, to the use of wooden instruments in this piece.