Listen to the interview Kees van Mechelen made for RKK Radio (in Dutch) on Welle of Mercy, for their program called Zinspelen. You can either go to the RKK website or listen directly to the audio stream.

I am currently working on a new piece, for Marin Gester’s Le Parlement de Musique, an excellent early music ensemble from Strassbourg. Like my electronic interludes Ponts de ténèbres (composed for the Lamentations of Orlandus Lassus), this new work goes as a companion piece with a setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, this time the Leçons de ténèbres by François Couperin. The Leçons de ténèbres became standard church repertoire during Holy Week. Couperin only left us three of those leçons, every single one a marvel of ornamented vocal art for one or two women’s voices plus continuo. All of French high society thronged to these musical services to be beguiled by candlelight. My new work is going to be performed in the Festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht, that commissioned this composition.

Listen to the radio recording – by Kees van Mechelen (RKK) and Don Vonk (Eurosound) – of the first performance of Welle of Mercy, during the Nederlands Gregoriaans Festival on Sunday 30 May, in the St. Luciakerk in Ravenstein. Schola Maastricht (conducted by Hans Heykers) and string orchestra Lundi Bleu (conducted by Carel den Hertog) did a wonderful and intense performance yesterday. I’m happy.

Oh, and do take a look at the long interview Monic Slingerland wrote in Trouw, earlier last week. Moze Jacobs recently made translations of most of the articles, for all you non-Dutch readers.

Lundi Bleu and Schola Maastricht in Crea Amsterdam, rehearsing Welle of Mercy for the premiere performance on May 30.