Photo: Arenda de Hoop
For us, the ›neo-classical‹ genre is one of the most cringeworthy developments in recent music history, so we’d like to make one thing clear from the get-go: this commissioned work for Pop-Kultur, which brings the deserving Berlin music producer Henrik Schwarz together with The Netherlands’ Alma Quartet (a quartet made up of musicians from Amsterdam’s renowned Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra), is not ›neo-classical‹. Instead, it’s the result of Schwarz’s intense study of some of the most stirring and rousing string quartets of the last few centuries. He »plundered« what he considers to be some of the most interesting passages in the repertoire (hence the title, though »plunder« is also a homage to the composer John Oswald). In other words, he sampled it before converting it back into notated form—which he did in order for the Alma Quartet to be able to perform the piece. Schwarz himself will direct, deconstruct, and reassemble the performance from his on-stage equipment—as both a conductor and DJ simultaneously.
Henrik Schwarz: electronics, concept Alma Quartet Marc Daniel van Biemen: violin Benjamin Peled: violin Jeroen Woudstra: viola Nitzan Laster: cello Henrik Schwarz on Facebook Alma Quartet on Facebook