An Ox on the Roof

Today the thirtieth episode of Een os op het dak by Thea Derks, inspired by her book Een os op het dak: moderne muziek na 1900 in vogelvlucht. The second edition appeared in December.

Cautiously, our concert halls are reopening, but corona is still a problem, now that the Delta variant is also making fully vaccinated people sick and it is feared that there will be a serious third wave next autumn. The successive natural disasters are not very cheerful either, so all the more reason to take a break and listen to music.

Recently, a portrait CD of the Moravian Vitězslava Kaprálová (1915-1940), who died far too young, was released. She was not only a great composer, who like Janáček found inspiration in Czech folk music, but also the first woman to conduct the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

In 1935, she made an orchestral version of her Suite en miniature for solo piano, which she composed four years earlier during her studies at the Brno Conservatory – where she was also the first woman to be admitted to the composition class.

The German-Dutch Marion von Tilzer was inspired by a meeting with the cellist Maya Fridman to write a cycle for singing cellist and piano, Ten Songs of Change. It is built around the 8 trigrams of the I Ching, the Chinese ‘Bible’.

Lulu Wang chose poems to accompany it, which are recited by Lei Qiu. The recording appeared on the adventurous label trptk, but can also be heard live: the ladies are currently touring with the cycle through our country.

The 1st edition of Een os op het dak is sold out, but via boekenbestellen.nl you can get a copy of the 2nd edition

1. Vítězslava Kaprálová.
Suite en miniature, opus 1.
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra
conducted by  Kenneth Kiesler. 

2. Marion von Tilzer.
Ten Songs of Change.
Maya Fridman, cello & vocals.
Marion von Tilzer, piano.
Lei Qiu, recital. 

composition, presentation and engineering by Thea Derks