In 1992 krijgt Robert Zuidam (1964) van zijn leraar Oliver Knussen een kerstgeschenk: The Complete McGonagall. Deze bundel met gedichten van William McGonagall brengt de lezer in vervoering en verwarring brengt. Zuidam raakt geïnspireerd door het monumentale Address to the New Tay Bridge, dat de loftrompet steekt over de imposante spoorbrug over de Firth of Tay bij Dundee, die een jaar later met een complete trein instort. Hierop volgt de The Tay Bridge Disaster. Zuidam plaatst de teksten in een indrukwekkend klankhuis met een belangrijke rol voor het Pianoduo Post&Mulder. Deze leggen de brug naar de tekst die door Belgische sopraan Kartrien Baerts op indringende en indrukwekkende wijze worden vertolkt. Nadat de brug met het onbekende is geslagen, volgt de volledige ineenstorting van het bouwwerk. Een prachtig eigentijds werk van Zuidam, die op dit moment werkt aan zijn Requiem in opdracht van Stichting Jheronimus Bosch 500.
Robert Zuidam: McGonagall-Lieder
Tracks
1
For Two Pianos
2
Address to the New Tay Bridge
3
For Two Pianos and Strings
4
For Two Pianos II
5
The Tay Bridge Disaster
McGonagall-Lieder is a song cycle composed by Robert Zuidam with lyrics of the legendary William McGonagall. It is conducted by Oliver Knussen and performed by Katrien Baerts, Pianoduo Post&Mulder and Asko|Schönberg. The work highlights the theatrical sound that Zuidam is known for and has a unique composition of instruments: soprano, four celli, double bass, percussion and the special role for two piano's.
The texts of this work are from William McGonagall, a poet from Dundee in Schotland who was a weaver with an unshakeable faith in his poetic genius. The Times Literary Supplement once wrote about this legendary writer: "A real genius, for he is the only memorable bad poet in our language". Robert Zuidam ads: "Bad poetry can be an excellent source of inspiration for a composer. Dante, Virgil, Goethe all evoke reverence and awe, and reluctance to open all portholes in the battleship of the imagination. And not without reason: after all, good poetry is already music in itself, and fares well without support. When Oliver Knussen, composer, conductor, and connaisseur of Scottish paraphernalia, gave me The Complete McGonagall as a Christmas present in 1992, I immediately sensed the musical potential of this remarkable poetry."
Robert Zuidam, studied composition at the Conservatory of Rotterdam. He was awarded the Koussevitzky Composition Prize for Fishbone, a work for wind instruments and piano, and a Leonard Bernstein Scholarship enabled him to return to Tanglewood as a student. In 2010, Zuidam taught and lectured at Harvard University as Erasmus Professor, and was awarded the Kees van Baaren-Prize in The Hague, for his opera Rage d'amours. The core of Zuidam’s compositional activities lies in the field of vocal music, particularly that of the music theatre.
