For their performance, Henriette and Maurice put together a programme of lied art songs from outside Europe. I never knew how much wonderful vocal music had been written by composers - mostly unknown to me - in Canada (Carl Philippe Gionet), the United States (Jodi Goble, Jake Heggie), Australia (Calvin Bowman, Sally Whitwell), South Africa (Hendrik Hofmeyr), Morocco (Maurice Ohana), Indonesia (Mochtar Embut), Brazil (Heitor Villa-Lobos), Japan (Sadao Bekku) and Argentina (Astor Piazzolla). In a certain way exotic, yet familiar; music from afar, but rooted in the European lied tradition.
Everything this duo touches always seems to turn to gold, but in my opinion they have outdone themselves this time. What an exceptional choice of repertoire, what synergy and what an atmosphere was created! Bravo to Henriette with her beautiful voice, her great empathy and powers of persuasion, and all in so many different languages. Bravo to Maurice with his phenomenal piano playing and sublime sense of detail. We were moved by their passion, playfulness and melancholy, and however wonderful all the previous performances that day were, this recital brought tears to my eyes.
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Having listened breathlessly for 45 minutes, the audience went wild in the final applause in a most un-Dutch fashion, and if the main hall of the Moravian Church had not been so solidly built, the roof would have been blown off.
The performance is the prelude to a longer programme with even more gems, and I can't wait until we have the complete Warm where Snowflakes lie can be booked in Rotterdam or The Hague.
Liesbeth Reijerkerk
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