New Ciudad: Tokyo

    ByWillem van Merwijk

    A promise I made to the Amstel Quartet when I wrote my first 4 Ciudades was that I would regularly add a new city portrait… Well I did, but maybe less frequently than I had hoped; always too busy of course. Last year I added Köln (Germany; for the Signum 4tet) and now comes a new town: Tokyo (Japan). Energetic, wild, hectic and…difficult. Dedicated to a group that is a great advocate for my music in Portugal; the ELLE Quartet. I also made a version for clarinet quartet for the NAKK (New Amsterdam Clarinet Quartet). Tokyo will be available soon.

    Similar Posts

    • Porto Visit May 2015 (by Saskia Törnqvist)

      ByWillem van Merwijk Hours

      It is a long climb from Porto’s ancient town centre to the Escola Superior de Música e das Artes (ESMAE), the Porto Academy of Music, but the walk is wonderful. Leading from the Douro river through stairways, squares full of houses covered with traditional azuléjos, the famous blue porcelain tiles from Portugal, and small mysterious…

    • Tief!

      ByWillem van Merwijk Hours

      So many things happening lately that I sort of forgot to post stuff… Exciting premieres coming up and the first by Marijn Migchielsen en Rommert Groenhof at Marijn’s Master Exam at Codarts Rotterdam,27th of June 2016, 20.30 at Rotterdam Codarts. (recommended…) A duet for two contrabass trombones called TIEF (deep) and it is gloomy, poetic…

    • Rimas de Bécquer

      ByWillem van Merwijk Hours

      Happy to tell you that I sent out my ‘Rimas de Bécquer’, (five rhymes by the romantic Andalusian poet Gustavo Bécquer (1836-1870)) to Fokko Oldenhuis, conductor of the Utrechtse Studenten Cantorij. Five songs for choir (SATB + soloists SATBar) and soprano saxophone, in all some 16 minutes of music. Thus fulfilling one of the promises…

    • Wordsworth Poems Wereldpremiere

      ByWillem van Merwijk Hours

      Op een steenworp van de Houses of Parliament staat de St. John’s Smith Square, een kerk met een roerige geschiedenis. Ze werd gebouwd in 1710, brandde af in 1742, werd herbouwd en toen door de bliksem getroffen in 1815, herrees wederom en bood in het interbellum plaats aan een jongenskoor waar Benjamin Britten in korte…

    • Update on Clarinet pieces

      ByWillem van Merwijk Hours

      Yesterday I had a first run-through with Harmen de Boer, my friend and colleague at both the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam,  of the clarinet-version of Consecuencias. A very promising and interesting run-through. He will be premiering it with the Nostos String Quartet at the Lago@Splendor concert on March 28, 2016, at…

    • Catching up 2: Leyendas… (Legends)

      ByWillem van Merwijk Hours

      In the summer of 2018 Zagreb (Croatia) hosted the World Saxophone Congress and there a longstanding wish came true: the premiere of a (substantial) concerto for alto saxophone and symphony orchestra written for my dear friend for over 35 years: Arno Bornkamp. A legend by himself and without doubt one of the greatest virtuosos and…