'Playful, witty, sly and light-footed. But never airy, gratuitous or ordinairy. Whoever can bring those qualities together in composition is a clever fellow.’ This was Guido van Oorschot’s appraisal at the end of April in De Volkskrant following the première of White eagle, Martijn Padding’s new violin concerto.

Light-footed but not simple: those are indeed qualifications the composer can identify with: ‘I miss a lot of transparency in contemporary music, of the sort you can find for example in Scarlatti: it seems wafer-thin, but is so well put together.’ He also whole-heartedly underlines Hendrik Andriessen’s remark that depth in music often lies on the surface: ‘I want to hit the target – instead of digging a deep hole.’

Padding (Amsterdam, 1956), a student of Louis Andriessen and presently the head of the composition department at the Royal Conservatory, began his career as an untiring commentator on music history, and often made different musical styles a subject in his compositions – in order to take them firmly in his hands, manipulate them, and bring something new to the surface.

In the last decade, he started to work much more freely, open to everything, constantly starting fresh. He recognizes this attitude of unrestricted experimentation in Stockhausen, who he sees as one of his greatest sources of inspiration. ‘Each piece is a new experiment,’ says Padding. ‘I allow myself to use my fantasy.’ That results in a wilful kind of music, sometimes frivolous, often full of references, but always fascinating.

Joep Stapel