Abbas Kiarostami: The Chorus – short movie (1982)
Golnaz Shariatzadeh: Blue Womb for ensemble, electronics and animation (WP)
Galina Ustvolskaya: Piano Sonata 6 (1988)
Alexander Khubeev: Don’t leave the room for solo performer, ensemble, electronics and live video (WP)
Co-production: Gaudeamus Utrecht, DE SINGEL, Musica Strasbourg, Muziekcentrum De Bijloke Ghent, Nadar Ensemble, Ultima Oslo, others to be confirmed
Commissioned by Nadar Ensemble with support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation
As a poet, Russian Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996) was accused of “social parasitism”; his contribution to society was too limited and he lived on someone else’s hood. After community service and exile, he lived in the United States until his death. The 1969 poem Don’t leave the room refers to the Hong Kong flu outbreak the year before, but at the same time ironically denounces the lameness of the people to revolt.
That this poem today is still grimly relevant is proven by the interest in it by the young Russian composer Alexander Khubeev (b. 1986). He sets this poem to music, but chooses an original and conceptually interesting angle by not having this poem sung or recited, but rather by having a performer silently depict it through sign language. It is a silence that writer Mikhail Shiskin extends to all of Russian culture today during these wartime times. ‘Silence as a survival strategy, silence as the air you breathe.’ The silence is simultaneously deafening through Khubeev’s dystopian sound world.
In The Chorus by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, an old man can no longer cope with the noise pollution of everyday life. He removes his hearing aid, but as a result can no longer hear the doorbell when his granddaughter comes home. A cranking chorus of young girls exhorts the man to put his hearing aid back in, a metaphor for the position of young people whose voices are not heard in Iranian society.
Moved by the revolution in Iran that reached a new sad climax 2 years ago, Iranian composer Golnaz Shariatzadeh writes Fabric of sorrow (13’ for trio and animation) for Nadar Ensemble. Remarkable is her trajectory in which she creates both music and haunting animated films and brings them together in her work. Both Shariatzadeh and Nadar are eager to take the next step in their collaboration where she can write for a larger ensemble as well as a longer piece.
Shariatzadeh about her new work: ‘Alienated by the city’s political landscape, two sibling-creatures find themselves on the verge of this post-apocalyptic city. The city, imbued with memories of the past (Iran’s protests of 2022) is an alive organism that has swallowed the hopes of the people in the form of a wound. The city’s corners and alleys, similar to a mother’s womb that could give refuge, has lost its warmth and safety. To take refuge from the outside and the “wound” architecture left by the past authoritarian government, the sibling-creatures take a journey inside one another’s bodies, each connecting to the other with their imaginary umbilical cord which creates high electric frequencies. They construct their imaginary city, the blue womb, built from memories and what their city could become. Their journey is one of knowing and growth, an imaginary womb created between the bodies to hold and protect the other. The ensemble becomes a giant canvas in which geometric and expressionist lines weave together to paint an imaginary love poem: to the city that people once knew and to the sibling-creatures.
With Don’t leave the room, Nadar wants to give a voice to an Iranian and Russian composer with an uncertain future, who artistically take a stand against their current regimes.
Marieke Berendsen, violin – Alena Biruza-Buitenhuis, solo performer – Katrien Gaelens, flute – Yves Goemaere, percussion – Wannes Gonnissen, sound – Robin Goossens, business director – Pieter Matthynssens, cello, artistic director – Elisa Medinilla, piano – Thomas Moore, trombone – Stefan Prins, artistic director – Steven Reymer, video and light – Dries Tack, clarinet – Veerle Vervoort, production leader