Programme

Cornelis de Bondt never avoids big gestures. His composition ‘Bloed’ (‘Blood’) (1997-2001) is a reckoning with the traumatic consequences of war, which are passed on from father to son. In other works, such the piano concert ‘Die Wahre Art’ (2000) en the cycle ‘Het Gebroken Oor’ (‘The Broken Ear) (1984), he places them in a new context and places music history under a microscope. ‘Die wahre Art’ references writings of Carl Philipp Emanuel Back, in which he describes techniques of how to express emotions on the harpsichord. De Bondt is fascinated by this paradox. Technique and feeling are troublesome allies in his music, and are never fully comfortable in each other’s presence. But it is not comfort De Bondt is searching for.