An Ox on the Roof 60: The Ox in wartime #23
An introduction to contemporary music in ordinary language.
Episode sixty of An ox on the roof by Thea Derks, named after her book An ox on the roof: modern music after 1900 in a nutshell.
The situations in Palestine and Ukraine and in other war-torn regions worldwide don’t seem to be getting any better. During his recent visit to China, Dutch Prime Minister Rutte attempted to persuade the Chinese government and a group of students to not blindly support Russia, but it made little impression.
Today we continue our tribute to the brave Ukrainians, who despite their setbacks keep fighting and refuse to surrender to their dictatorial neighbour country. With admirable perseverance, they continue to uphold their cultural institutions the best they can.
In 2022, Anna Arkushyna composed So they grow like sunflowers for harp and string quartet. One year later, it made its debut at the Ukrainian Contemporay Music Festival at the Kaufman Center in New York. Nowadays, Arkushyna lives and works in Graz, Austria.
This episode will also feature recently released CDs, such as Spanish-British pianist Antonio Oyarzabal’s part II of his series La muse oubliée, dedicated to music by female composers. We will listen to Trois petites pièces pour piano by Nadia Boulanger, who was primarily known for being a composition instructor and Lili Boulanger‘s sister. This will be followed by Nadia Boulanger’s Trois pièces pour cello et piano, which appeared on duo Eline Hensels and Daniël Kramer’s new CD.
Another recently released CD is Ragazze Quartet’s But not my Soul, on which she combines Florence Price‘s [pictured above] String Quartet no.2 with Antonin Dvorák’s so-called ‘American Quartet’. Just as her older Czech colleague, Price found inspiration in the music of the Black population in the United States.
The 1st edition of An ox on the roof is sold out, but you can order the second edition on boekenbestellen.nl
1. Anna Arkushyna. So they grow like sunflowers.
Johanna Wu & Marina Kifferstein, violin. Jeremy Kienbaum, viola.
Kirsten Jermé, cello. Nuiko Wadden, harp.
2. Nadia Boulanger.
a. Trois petites pièces pour piano.
Antonio Oyarzabal, piano.
b. Trois pièces pour cello et piano.
Eline Hensels, cello. Daniël Kramer, piano.
3. Florence Price [pictured above]. String Quartet no. 2.
Ragazze Quartet.
Compilation, presentation and tech by Thea Derks
