Are you Hung(a)ry?
The Nieuw Amsterdams Klarinet Kwartet presents a program that celebrates the rich and versatile musical tradition of Hungary. Composers such as Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók used the clarinet from the folk music tradition as a storyteller in their music and combined the warm sounds of our instrument with the energetic and very rhythmic folk music of Hungary. Johannes Brahms also tried to capture the Hungarian soul in his Hungarian dances. Brahms’ love for the clarinet was evident: he had actually already stopped composing, but after hearing clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld he added a number of compositions with clarinet to his oeuvre. Let yourself be carried away by tender melodies and explosive Gypsy music and we promise you: no cup of goulash will ever taste the same again.
Classical Escape
The Musical Escaperoom is a new project by the NAKK in collaboration with the Concertgebouw, specially designed for brave detectives from VMBO, HAVO and VWO. The students discover the famous Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar using musical riddles. The story: the press from all over the country has been called to the press conference of the New Amsterdam Clarinet Quartet. The four clarinetists have unravelled which characters the Enigma Variations by the British composer Edward Elgar are about. There is only one problem: they are still missing three! The students are urgently needed to help the quartet and find the missing characters, so that the concert and the press conference can go ahead. Will the students manage to crack the code within 35 minutes? The musicians of the NAKK will then give a 20-minute concert, in which they will play the Enigma Variations as well as well-known music from ‘Wie is de mol’ and ‘James Bond’.
Le voisin de Chopin
Frédéric Chopin gained fame as the romantic with the golden fingers. Less well-known is Charles-Valentin Alkan, his colleague whose piano works are among the most difficult ever written. Both were virtuoso pianists, friends and neighbours in 19th-century Paris. They form the backdrop for a new concert programme by the Nieuw Amsterdams Klarinet Kwartet. Expect a romantic and virtuoso concert in which all the clarinets are used for Chopin’s lyrical sounds and Alkan’s devilishly impressive antics. The NAKK asked Dutch piano great Thomas Beijer to arrange Alkan’s pieces. The story goes that Chopin was so impressed by Alkan’s technical virtuosity that he remarked that Alkan had three hands instead of two. Fortunately, the NAKK has eight!
Vreemde vogels
Something strange is going on. All the music is gone! Just disappeared. Even the clarinets of the New Amsterdam Clarinet Quartet no longer make any sound. Fortunately, the children at the family concert Strange Birds help with the search. Because music is everywhere! Listen to the singing of the birds, the rustling of the insects and the cracking of the branches.
Strange Birds is an interactive walking concert for children aged 5-11 in collaboration with Concertgebouw and Staatsbosbeheer.
Wunderhorns
Following a performance at the major international Mahler Festival in Het Concertgebouw in 2020 that was cancelled due to Covid, we released our CD “Wunderhorns” with arrangements of the music of Gustav Mahler in April 2021. The press and public were unanimously enthusiastic: De Volkskrant wrote: “The Nieuw Amsterdams Klarinet Kwartet knows what to do with Mahler’s unprecedented wealth of color and emotions” and the NRC Handelsblad wrote: “The four clarinetists prepared an album from all the Mahler ingredients that leaves you wanting more”. Because of the important role that the clarinet plays in Mahler’s music, the NAKK has come to regard his music as a bit “theirs” and thanks to its enormous versatility, the clarinet is the ideal instrument to fathom all sides of the emotional palette that Mahler has to offer: from graceful Viennese waltz melodies to music that expresses great wonder at nature and from resigned, comforting songs to ecstatic Austrian folk music! During this concert, the NAKK will present its own vision of Mahler’s entire oeuvre: parts of symphonies and songs, as well as so-called remixes, in which the NAKK takes on Mahler’s music in its own way.
Zwanenkrakers
In this program we play music from the king and queen of ballets: Swan Lake and the Nutcracker. In addition, there is music that is inspired by the two ballets: Duke Ellington wrote his own “nutcracker suite” and the NAKK has commissioned various arrangers/composers to translate their own vision of the Ballets into music. Expect a very emotional folk version of the well-known “Dance Arabe”, a swinging Waltz of Flowers and let yourself be carried away by the ever-present beautiful melodies of Tschaikovsky.
West Side Story
Together with violinist Nadia Wijzenbeek we bring our own version of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story.
The story is supported by poems by poet Robert Grijsen.
New Amsterdam Stories
We bring a program about the New World. New York, New York, with its many musical influences. Bernstein’s West Side Story, but also Dvořák and Gershwin evoke a vibrant World City feeling.
Dromenblazers
What does fantasy sound like? Four boys breathe life into dreams. With the keys of fantasy, they open doors to unknown dream worlds. Full of youthful wonder and sometimes a touch naughty, they playfully challenge you to dream along. Or party dreams. Or dance dreams. Or dream back. Dromenblazers is a cheerful concert in collaboration with Oorkaan in which the four men of the Nieuw Amsterdams Klarinet Kwartet magically switch smoothly between different musical styles by Gershwin, Satie, Mahler and Dvořák. Because in dreams, anything is possible!