Jan-Peter: “The sax deserves a permanent place in the symphony orchestra.”
Composer Jan-Peter de Graaff is guest curator of Festival Dag in de Branding on Saturday, October 19. He put together a beautiful program around the theme ‘between the city and the sea’ and based on his love for the saxophone. His new Concerto metropolitain for saxophone and orchestra will premiere in the evening program. Jan-Peter about being a guest curator: “It was very interesting to sit on this side of the table and notice the choices that programmers face.”
Lots of saxophones in this Dag in de Branding!
‘Certainly! When I get a composition assignment, I always try to include a saxophone, and the same goes for this edition of the festival. It’s my first instrument, I fell in love with it when I was eight and I still play it, as a hobby. Composing has taken over since I was eighteen, but I missed playing and a year ago I joined a wind orchestra again.’
The saxophone and the saxophone quartet seem to have been on the rise for a while now, is that right?
“Yes. As far as I’m concerned, the sax should have earned a permanent place in the symphony orchestra a century ago, but despite the efforts of composers such as Ravel and Rachmaninov, it never happened. Things are going very well in the Netherlands now, with Arno Bornkamp as the driving force: his class at the Conservatory of Amsterdam is a true breeding ground. With his Aurelia Quartet, Arno was also a trendsetter, just like the De Volharding orchestra in the 1970s. Thanks in part to them, the sax has become a standard ‘new music instrument’ in the Netherlands. Incidentally, the Ricciotti Ensemble is the only Dutch symphony orchestra that does have saxophones as a standard – credit where credit is due.”
The festival theme is ‘Between the city and the sea’. Why?
“I grew up on Terschelling, so I knew the sea well when I went to study in The Hague as an eighteen-year-old. But the sea here turned out to be something different. The first time I came to Scheveningen, I thought: why is there a funfair on the beach?! It is an interesting in-between area, where man and nature meet, in all sorts of ways. My new Concerto Metropolitain, which will have its world premiere on Saturday evening, is about the relationship between man and the city, and that formed a starting point for the programme. The concert by Kluster5 even paints an ‘acoustic panorama’ of the coastal area, analogous to the famous Panorama Mesdag.”
How did you like being a guest curator?
“It was very interesting to sit on this side of the table for a change and to notice the choices that programmers face. It was also a lot of work, I have to say. We went through all the pitches and project plans and then looked for what best suited the focus on the sax and the theme of the relationship between man and nature. That was quite a puzzle.”
What was the biggest eye-opener?
“That nine times out of ten, the reasons for rejecting a project proposal have nothing to do with its quality. It’s about financial resources, coherence in the programme, the gender ratio, the duration or instrumentation of a work, you name it. As a composer, that realisation is quite shocking.”
What are you going to offer the audience?
“It’s a programme full of energetic pieces, with a lot of drive and grit. I hope that the audience will take that energy home with them. Our new music sector is full of life and vitality and it is my mission to let that be heard.”
View the full program, compiled by Jan-Peter de Graaff, here. Info and tickets.