Repertoire list

Vier Weihnachten

for soprano and saxophone quartet / Georgs Pelecis

lyrics by Martina Lukits-Wally

recorded on 'PELECIS' album

featuring Michaela Riener, soprano

recorded on Amstel Tracks cd

written for Percussion Group The Hague, Matangi, Amstel Quartet and Sinewaves Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_foCLC7-ZQ

Louis Andriessen, Facing Death The Dutch composer Louis Andriessen (b.1939) has at various times drawn on compositional processes taken from the 15th through to the 18th centuries, as weil as being profoundly influenced by Stravinsky. He has taken concepts from Ives and Satie, and been consistently fascinated by popular music and jazz. The quintessential Andriessen ensemble sound, heavily reliant on brass, keyboards and electric guitars owes much to his interest in these latter genres, and the jazz world clearly provides the foundation for Facing Death (1991).

This work takes as its starting point the be-bop lines of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker, an artist who was important to the young Andriessen in his formative years. Originally the work was scored for string quartet, a curious paradox since, as Andriessen himself has admitted, be-bop lines are not at all idiomatic for string instruments. They are, however, idiomatic for saxophones, and parker's angular and frenetic style sits much more comfortably in this version than the "original". Text: Stephen Cottrell / Amstel Quartet

three saxophones and optional percussion

with live electronics, samples and Lisa

composition made in collaboration with Olivier Sliepen and Bas Apswoude

ws nh djdj (Was Ankh Djed)

Amstel Quartet featuring Steve Coleman

-four movements-

Steve Coleman’s work ‘Was Ankh Djed’ for saxophone quartet and improviser was premiered by the Amstel Quartet with the composer as soloist. The work features many recognizable elements of Coleman’s music in a new context: polyrhythmic and highly syncopated melodies combine with each other and the solo voice, to create a complex and grooving texture. The composer playfully combines his solo alto saxophone voice with those of the quartet members, giveing the four-movement piece an organic and spontaneous feeling which nonetheless builds to an ecstatic mixed meter finale. 

Typical of the composer’s holistic and universal conception, the piece combines the most modernist aesthetic influences with ideas and imagery around ancient Egypt. In particular, the flexible tuning of ancient reed instruments as a parallel to the sound of the saxophone was a jumping off point for Coleman, along with the serpentine and highly chromatic lines of his mentor, the Chicago-based hard bop saxophonist Von Freeman (the piece’s dedicatee).

recorded on CD One Gram of Time

for saxophones and EWI's [breathcontrolled synthesizers made by AKAI]

"The real innovation in 'Similar Motion' is its sense of drama. The earlier pieces were meditative, steady-state pieces that established a mood and stayed there. But 'Similar Motion' starts with one voice, then adds another playing a fourth above the original line, and then another playing a fourth below the original line, and finally a last line kicks in to complete the sound. As each new voice enters, there is a dramatic change in the music".

Philip Glass

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 64, No. 3 Much has been said of Haydn as 'father' of the string quartet, which indeed he was with his enormous output in that genre. Beyond that astounding accomplishment, however, we must realize that with the refinement of that form he also defined the Classical period, moving once and for all from the Baroque. It was left for Mozart and Beethoven to culminate the Classical style, but no one represented it any better than Haydn in his string quartets.

Haydn's voluminous output alone does not explain his powerful musical and cultural influence. His 83 string quartets, though daunting in number, are also overwhelming in their stylistic breadth and ingenuity. They move across the boundaries of the Baroque and the Classical and even lick the edges of Romanticism.

The move to a freer, more emotional expression was occasioned by the end of Haydn's 29-year tenure as Kappelmeister in the court of the Hungarian aristocrat, Prince Paul Anton Esterházy. That, coupled with two highly successful visits to London, gave Haydn a wider musical exposure. Freed from musical and financial obligations, Haydn went to London where, under the direction of the German violinist and impresario Johann Peter Salomon, he became an international celebrity.

If there was a certain new-found verve and sophistication to his work, surely that is reflected in the six quartets of Op. 64 known as the 'Tost Quartets.' The set was published in 1791 shortly after the collapse of the Esterházy court. It should come of no surprise, therefore, that the dedicatee was the violinist Johann Tost, a member of Haydn's orchestra during his thirty years in the employ of Count Esterházy. The exact details of that dedication are a source of scholarly debate.

The first movement bears all the best Haydn imprints: energy, charm, wit. These are combined with a wonderful conversational quality, rich thematic development, and no small display of virtuosity. Typical in this movement, also, are Haydn's quick 'frowns' or, more musically stated, modulations from the major to the minor.

The tender sadness of the Adagio refutes any thought of 'Happy Haydn.' Here he weaves beautiful melodies into a complex song shared by all the instruments. He also makes dramatic use of the repeated note in a way that suggests music far ahead of his time.

The third movement Menuetto is a return to more traditional 18th century elegance but one fraught, once again, with modulations to the minor key. The movement abounds with embellishments' grace notes, turns, and trills. It is also rhythmically rich with syncopation.

In the Finale, Haydn allows himself almost sheer fun. The high-spirits are interrupted only for a moment before the lively coda completes the work.

2009 Lucy Miller Murray Lucy Miller Murray is founder of Market Square Concerts in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Her book, Adams to Zemlinsky: A Friendly Guide to Chamber Music, was published by Concert Artists Guild of New York and is available at amazon.com. A second edition is forthcoming.

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remake of version for string quartet

Turntable Breathing (2016) In een rap tempo volgen deze laatste paar jaar de 80ste verjaardagen van de Minimal goeroes elkaar op: Terry Riley vierde de zijne in 2015, Steve Reich in 2016, en 2017 staat wereldwijd in het teken van Glass 80. Een aanleiding voor Kypski en het Amstel Quartet om deze stijl - die zowel zijn plek in de klassieke hedendaagse heeft maar ook van grote invloed is op de elektronische muziekscene - in een gezamenlijke compositie vanuit een geheel eigen perspectief te benaderen. De voor de hand liggende aanpak van melodisch materiaal gespeeld door de blazers die vervolgens begeleid worden door vette beats van de DJ draaien ze juist om en lokken elkaar zo uit hun comfortzones: zo zijn het de saxofoons die een hypnotisch kader creëren waarin Kypski alle ruimte heeft om met zijn draaitafel op een melodische manier te bespelen en zo op een unieke manier tot een een vijfde kwintetlid wordt.

eight movements

recorded october 2019

CD American Dream

- De Betoverde Vaatwasser (Namavar, 2022)

Tonny Tonijn woont boven kinderdagverblijf ´de Oorvijygh´ alwaar juf Manuela lichtelijk overwerkt blijkt. De vaatwasser staat centraal in dit verhaal maar ook de handleiding ervan heeft een grote rol. Alledaagse gebeurtenissen op het kinderdagverblijf gecombineerd met miraculeuze wendingen maken dit absurdistische drama tot een uniek hedendaags epos. Reza Namavar slaagt erin met zijn ongebreidelde fantasie de luisteraar mee te nemen in zeer fantasierijke verhalen en ondersteunt deze met een vakkundige en kleurrijke compositie. Namavar staat bekend om zijn originele bijdragen aan het hedendaagse muzieklandschap. In 2017 won hij de Willem Breuker Prijs en noemde de jury hem ‘een volstrekt authentiek, muzikaal erudiet en eigengereid componist.’ 

featuring MARCEL BEEKMAN, tenor

recorded on Baltica cd

I Confession (die Beiche)

II Weeping (die Klage)

III Consolation (die Troestung)

IV Absolution (Sunlight) {die Verzeihung (Sonnenschein)}

recorded on 'Pelēcis'  album

featuring Laura Sandee

Gaudeamus? : Capriccio for saxophone quartet and organ

recorded on 'Pelecis' album

featuring Una Cintina, organ

the Amstel Quartet recorded a selection of Purcell's Fantazias on the album 'Songs of Clarity' by soprano Klaartje van Veldhoven check: http://www.klaartjevanveldhoven.nl/page7/index.html

Covid-19 heeft veel trauma's, ontberingen en onrust veroorzaakt bij miljarden mensen over de hele

wereld. Het verandert de manier waarop we denken over een breed scala aan onderwerpen, inclusief de

manier waarop we met de natuur omgaan. Tegelijkertijd biedt het ook de mogelijkheid om na te denken

over ons eigen leven, na te denken over wat belangrijk is en nieuwe manieren te ontdekken waarop we

onze impact op de planeet kunnen verminderen. Er bestaat een mogelijkheid de impact van de

klimaatcrisis te minimaliseren.

'Angel' geeft een artistieke kijk op de relatie tussen mens en natuur en is geschreven ter nagedachtenis aan

Giya Kancheli.

** Bewerking van de componist voor het Amstel Quartet

Maxim Shalygin: "Since the first day of the war in Ukraine, a terrible pain has settled inside me. Every time I close my eyes, I want to wake up from this terrible dream...but alas, it is not a dream. 'Drop after drop' is a kind of an ingot of that pain and memories of my childhood, when my relatives were telling me about the war years and sung wartime songs. I hear those songs inside me again and I wish they would stop..." 

Drop after drop by the Ukrainian-Dutch composer Maxim Shalygin is commissioned by and specially composed for Festivals for Compassion, an initiative by Wonderfeel Festival.

Festivals throughout Europe and beyond stand united in their condemnation of war and call for peace. By sharing Shalygin’s new string quartet festivals want to express their support and solidarity with their Ukrainian colleagues, artists, and all those who are suffering in this senseless war. Drop after drop will travel from festival to festival, and will be shared online as an ode to compassion and an act of solidarity in these dark times.

https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/21634

Run Riot is Turnage's first saxophone quartet and highlights his craft and skill as a composer. There are echoes here from the traditional French classical quartet style nuanced with beautiful and haunting melodic and rhythmic qualities. It is this gift of combining the old and the new which is particularly alluring here.

It received its WP at the Holt Festival, Norfolk in July 2013 and then was performed at numerous locations in the UK throughout the later part of 2013 into 2014. It received its first broadcast on the BBC Radio 3 programme 'Hear & Now' on April 14th 2014.

written for Delta Saxophone Quartet

with organ

Written in the summer of 1998 for the Aurelia Quartet, commissioned by the Almelo Chamber Music Society and the Dutch FPK.

The soundtrack reproduces the voice of trumpet player Chet Baker, from one of the last interviews before his tragic death by falling from an Amsterdam hotel room window in 1988. Baker talks about his past as a drug addict,his life in prison - "it was pitch black in there you know" - his first audition with Charlie Parker - "among 40 other trumpet players - or were there 60? " - and playing without drums - "more cool". These "speech melodies" form the leitmotifs in Pitch Black.

with Niti Ranjan Biswas on tabla's

for toy saxophone and saxophone quartet > for Anna and the Amstel Quartet < premiere 16-09-2012 Dordrecht [NL]