Michel van der Aa’s
Van der Aa has made waves with a series of cutting-edge cross-media works, and his newest score has been created for Argentinian-French cellist Sol Gabetta leading the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. The premiere tour of Up-close, commissioned by the European Concert Halls Organisation (ECHO), travels to six countries in March. The 30-minute work is scored for solo cello, strings and film, and the forces are variable to suit either ensemble or orchestral strings.
Van der Aa’s compositions have often explored the interface between music and film – two media that equally play with time, and the new work is no exception. The live performance of cellist and strings interacts with a mirror reality on film, where an elderly lady is seen as an alter-ego of the soloist. Her memories reach back across 60 years to her childhood and the need to communicate coded messages via a mysterious machine. Sounds from the film escape from the screen and intertwine with the music on the concert platform until the two females are drawn ever closer.
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