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And how are we today?

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Amsterdam’s Prinsengracht canal on the 18 August in 2012 saw the first performance of a new vocal work by Michel van der Aa. A setting of a poem by the British Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, And how are we today? is a commission for the Amsterdam Prinsengrachtconcert.

The Prinsengrachtconcert is a famous event with a long tradition in Amsterdam, and yet this will be the first it has featured a new composition. The finale of the annual Grachtenfestival (canal festival) of classical music, the concert is staged on a floating platform in the middle of the canal. An audience of thousands watch from the banks and bridges, or bring their boats up to the stage itself. The concert is also broadcast live on TV and radio, and is the most watched classical music broadcast on Dutch TV.

Written for the mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn, double bass player Rick Stotijn and pianist Joseph Breinl, Van der Aa describes And how are we today? as “a high energy, jazzy work with a theatrical layer and a virtuoso double bass part”, appropriate to its festive setting.

And how are we today? is the second part of the For the time being song cycle.

Video

Christianne & Rick Stotijn, Joseph Breinl. Prinsengrachtconcert 2012

Instrumentation

for mezzo-soprano, piano and double bass
2012

mezzo-soprano
double bass
piano

Details

Duration

5′

First performance

19 August 2012
21.20 hrs. Prinsengracht Festival, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Commissioned by

AVRO, Prinsengracht concert

Publisher

Boosey & Hawkes

Performances

Last performance


6 July 2020

For the time being (Irish premiere)

Claire Booth / Alina Ibragimova / Rick Stotjin / Zoltán Fejérvári
West Cork Chamber Music Festival

8pm, Bantry House, Cork, Ireland

All performances of And how are we today?

News

13 August 2012

Watery world premiere for ‘And how are we today?’

Prinsengrachtfestival Amsterdam’s Prinsengracht canal on the 18 August will see the first performance of a new vocal work by Michel van der Aa. A setting of a poem by the British Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, And how are we today? is a new commission for the Amsterdam Prinsengrachtconcert. The P...

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