The Treasure Hunt with Bas Wiegers
A personal account by conductor Bas Wiegers about how a musical score functions as a treasure map and leads to a concert, and many other aspects of a conductor’s life.
Episodes
Sunday Jan 14, 2024
About Charles Ives, a talk with Thomas Brodhead
Sunday Jan 14, 2024
Sunday Jan 14, 2024
I speak about Charles Ives with the great Ives connoisseur Thomas Brodhead, whom I got to know when we worked on Ives’ Fourth Symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra back in 2012. Ives is such a fascinating composer and has been a constant inspiration in my life as a musician. At the moment, I’m preparing his piece Three Places in New England, which I get to conduct for the first time.
Links to the pieces:
Charles Ives: Country Band March
President's Own United States Marine Band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avowzDI8uR0
Charles Ives (orch. T. Grahl, 2021): Walt Whitman - (1921) from 114 Songs Klangforum Wien, Thomas Hampson, Bas Wiegers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqnO8dJJPYs
Charles Ives: Fourth Symphony
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Peter Eötvös, Bas Wiegers, Ralph van Raat
Private recording
Charles Ives: March No. 6 for Piano, with Here's to Good Old Yale
Charles Ives, piano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMW0r_ZxFm8&list=OLAK5uy_lE6Eb6U39_HOe_juxz9dJukRFRewUz3xs&index=41
Charles Ives: Three Places In New England - 1. The "St. Gaudens" In Boston Common
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhbutHpwEh8
Charles Ives: They Are There!, second take
Charles Ives, piano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az0iNeRvNts&list=OLAK5uy_lE6Eb6U39_HOe_juxz9dJukRFRewUz3xs&index=39
Charles Ives: Four Transcriptions from Emerson: No. 1 (beg.)
Charles Ives, piano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c8lNFR5xWw&list=OLAK5uy_lE6Eb6U39_HOe_juxz9dJukRFRewUz3xs&index=1
Charles Ives: Three Places In New England - 2. Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Ytm0l0FTU
Charles Ives: The Unanswered Question
Ricciotti Ensemble, Leonard van Goudoever
Private Recording
Saturday Oct 07, 2023
With Theo Loevendie, preparing for the Concertgebouw Orchestra
Saturday Oct 07, 2023
Saturday Oct 07, 2023
Today I'm spending some time with the 93 year old Theo Loevendie, one of the first living composers I worked with as a student. I'm coming back to his music after 25 years, to prepare two concerts with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. We speak about his youth, his influences, and about the two works I'm preparing: Flexio for orchestra and Six Turkish Folk Poems for singer and orchestra.
Here's info about the music you hear:
Draaiorgel Sarie Marais - Appeltjes van Oranje
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgOlWzqXXnY
Glenn Miller - American Patrol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAVejLjXVdw
Umm Kulthum - 1967, Live at the Olympia, Paris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPGHpBOt5sE
Theo Loevendie - Six Turkish Folk Poems
Dorothy Dorow, soprano
Residentie Orkest
Ernest Bour, conductor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU4090D14hs
Theo Loevendie - Flexio
Residentie Orkest
Peter Eötvös, conductor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYxMTfeEbFQ&t=412s
Theo Loevendie - Venus and Adonis
Insomnio:
Carlos Galvez, bass clarinet
Bas Wiegers, violin
Martine Sikkenk, mandolin
Reinhold Westerheide, guitar
Ulrich Pöhl, percussion
(private recording)
Photo Loevendie: Teo Krijgsman
Thursday May 11, 2023
With Rebecca Saunders, on working closely with musicians
Thursday May 11, 2023
Thursday May 11, 2023
I have a chat with Rebecca Saunders, who works very closely with musicians to find the sounds she loves. We speak about the new piece (Skull) which we have just premiered at the Achtbrücken Festival, but also about other pieces and musicians who have inspired her.
I’ve woven small fragments of her music into the episode. If you want to have a proper listen to the entire pieces, the links are below.
YES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtuJLKb0Vwc
Ensemble Musikfabrik, Juliet Fraser, Enno Poppe
DUST https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA2P7PQp0OU
Dirk Rothbrust, percussion
SKIN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkdODcg2Fmw
Klangforum Wien, Juliet Fraser, Bas Wiegers
SCAR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BriQ35IrGxA
Klangforum Wien, Julien Leroy
Monday Mar 27, 2023
With Johanna Zimmer, on singing in very different situations
Monday Mar 27, 2023
Monday Mar 27, 2023
For this episode, I spoke with Johanna Zimmer, a wonderful soprano I had the joy of working with many times. She works as a soloist, as a chamber musician, in the choir, in opera. We speak about this versatility and why she needs it in her life. We speak about words in music and how important they are for us as musicians. At the moment, we are working with the SWR Vokalensemble on a program with music by Ligeti, Feldman and Orlando di Lasso.
The music you hear, is:
György Ligeti - Three Fantasies: Wenn aus der Ferne
SWR Vokalensemble, Yuval Weinberg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvJzdYziCic
Morton Feldman - Rothko Chapel
SWR Vokalensemble, Marcus Creed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGQe3NsuvfM&t=636s
Orlando di Lasso - Lagrime di San Pietro: il magnanimo Pietro
Ensemble Vocal Européen, Philippe Herreweghe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeHZQ83oFQM
Franz Tunder - Ach Herr, lass deine lieben Engelein
Johanna Zimmer, Ensemble with Fabian Wöhrle, continuo
Tuesday Feb 21, 2023
A talk with Enno Poppe
Tuesday Feb 21, 2023
Tuesday Feb 21, 2023
For this episode, I spoke with Enno Poppe. At the moment of recording, I am doing his piece Speicher with Klangforum Wien. We speak about deciding what ideas you want to put in a piece, Enno's love of idiomatic material and his close relationship to players, which is so important for the way he writes. We speak about the different roles we can have: in the case of Enno, he is not only a composer, but also a conductor, a player, and, of course, also sometimes audience. How does his persona change when his role changes? Is a conductor a different person?
The music you hear is:
Enno Poppe - Speicher (Klangforum Wien, Enno Poppe)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR_43dJWjFw
Enno Poppe - Augen (Sara Maria Sun, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Bas Wiegers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkiG3uWah1s
Wednesday Jan 11, 2023
Getting to know Chaya Czernowin
Wednesday Jan 11, 2023
Wednesday Jan 11, 2023
In this episode, I try to describe the process of getting to know a composer I haven't worked with before. To my great joy, I finally get to work with Chaya Czernowin. I try to explain how I get into her music, I speak to her about the music, and we listen to some inspiring musicians playing her music.
Sunday Nov 06, 2022
Joseph Haydn, the great surpriser
Sunday Nov 06, 2022
Sunday Nov 06, 2022
In this episode, I try to share how I fell in love with Joseph Haydn. It's a shout out to my former theory teachers!
I'm preparing two of his symphonies (38 and 101) for a concert with the Münchener Kammerorchester, and studying and rehearsing these works is so exciting and refreshing. Why does Haydn inspire me so much? And how can we keep discovering his music over and over again?
Here are links to the full recordings of the fragments I used:
Starsailor, Four on the floor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k98fnaHGjwU
String Quartet no 57, Dudok Quartet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9umdVIyx13w
Symphony no 103, Sigiswald Kuyken & La Petite Bande
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWexiBzbqTw&t=3
Symphony no 101, Frans Brüggen, Orchestra of the 18th Century
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9Qtu15FLTM&t=2s
Tuesday Oct 25, 2022
With Trevor Grahl: on finding treasures
Tuesday Oct 25, 2022
Tuesday Oct 25, 2022
A chat with composer and good friend Trevor Grahl about taste and fashion in music, the pressure to follow this fashion, and the journey to to find your own voice.
Links to the pieces:
Kapote https://youtu.be/ZXs8Q6UYANU
Sterre Konijn, voice
Jurjen Hempel, conductor
RKST21
Dreams of Machines: https://youtu.be/4RtBrQG6hnw
Brno Contemporary Orchestra, Pavel Šnajdr, conductorWolfgang Heisig, pianola
Of Ancient Days: https://youtu.be/XNCihLvcjDo
Trevor Grahl, organ
Babbelbox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXbShFT_rGY&ab_channel=Lonelinoise
Sebastiaan Kemner - trombone & chickenVincent van Wijk - Oboe D'amore & poser
Saturday Sep 10, 2022
With Georg Friedrich Haas: on interpretation
Saturday Sep 10, 2022
Saturday Sep 10, 2022
In this episode, I speak with the great composer Georg Friedrich Haas. I try find out what he has to say about "interpretation", this space between what a composer writes down and what a musician makes of it. We speak about communicating your ideas with an orchestra, teaching young composers and writing for Austrian brass bands.
Saturday Aug 27, 2022
A chat with Mollena
Saturday Aug 27, 2022
Saturday Aug 27, 2022
I have the magnificent Mollena Lee Williams Haas as my guest. We speak about the opera Sycorax and its characters. About women in opera, people of color in opera, and generally about how to make stories that translate to as many people as possible. About opera as a way to make people see what life is. Also, about Georg Friedrich Haas, and about our previous collaboration in Mollena’s and GF’s joint piece Hyena.
The music is an excerpt of Hyena, the live recording of the première at Wien Modern, with Mollena speaking, Klangforum Wien playing and me conducting. The recording can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oa4uCKbj4g&list=RD5oa4uCKbj4g&start_radio=1
By the way, contrary to what I’m announcing in the talk, we heard a bit of the BEGINNING of Hyena, not the ending.
Mollena’s own podcast can be found here:
https://allthatandmo.com