Het Collectief is taking a fresh start with the introduction of a new repertoire piece. The Viennese composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold dedicated his ‘Suite Opus 23 For Two Violins, Cello and Piano Left Hand’ to Paul Wittgenstein, a fairly good pianist, who had lost his right arm during World War I (Paul was a brother of the famous philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein). The Korngold Suite is quite a remarkable work and it will be programmed in our entirely Viennese concert in Lommel, featuring likewise compositions by Berg, Schoenberg and Mahler.

A second concert built around the same suite, but this time concentrating on Korngold’s American connection, will be given at the Ghent Handelsbeurs. In the turbulent thirties, the ‘wunderkind’ from Vienna had indeed ventured to Hollywood, where he developed a musical idiom that still serves as a model for the film music of someone like John Williams. Het Collectief will be confronting the romantic Korngold with two luminaries of American modernism: Charles Ives and ‘Bad Boy of music’ George Antheil.

More ‘Bad Boys’ are on the program in Arnhem, where Het Collectief will be providing a kaleidoscopic survey of the twentieth century avant-garde in America.

That 2012 is an important year for Het Collectief will be made clear at our Leyden concert. It should indeed be borne in mind that a hundred years ago, Arnold Schoenberg composed his expressionist melodrama ‘Pierrot Lunaire’. ‘Sprechstimme’ Jacqueline Janssen and conductor Robin Engelen will join us for a memorial execution of this masterwork. Two gems from the early years of Mahler and Zemlinsky will complete the evening’s program.

Last but not least, it is worth keeping an eye on the TV guide of CANVAS KLASSIEK for a first broadcast of our new Stravinsky and Schoenberg recording (4 March at 12:00).