Like a thread that stands out the melodic line emerges from the tangle that opens Robin de Raaff’s Entangled Tales. This month the work was given its Dutch premiere. It is as if you are listening to a multitude of voices - a buzzing whirl around a core that is gradually revealed in its full glory. It is a personal work, but to a certain extent it is more than that. The title refers to Tanglewood, the festival on which de Raaff has been featured regularly since 2000 and which has enriched his life in various ways. The title is also related to his way of working. As de Raaff puts it: “In my music internal contrasts are exploited. This creates a tension that keeps the music together like the parts of an atom.”

In De Raaff’s music the story line evolves from themes and elements that seem unrelated at first. This is also the case in his Violin Concerto that will be premiered in the ZaterdagMatinee on 6 December. The orchestra, that rises and recedes like a tidal force, is juxtaposed with the violin that, although it emanates from the orchestra, moves in different spheres. The fifths in which the violin is tuned are imperceptibly assimilated in the architecture of the composition. De Raaff: “Inspired by Alban Berg, I used to make use of a framework in my music. Nowadays I am playing with segments again. These have developed into a natural language, thus restoring the binding force in my music. Gradually the framework is padded out until it becomes a complete story. That is how I see myself - as a storyteller.”

Recent commissions:

Work commissioned by the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic conducted by Thierry Fisher.

Percussion-Concerto for the New Juilliard Ensemble conducted by Joel Sachs. Premiere in the Lincoln Center, New York (United States).

Cello Concerto for the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Marien van Staalen, cello.