Composers
Bram Van Camp (273″ – Pianopiece Nr. 1)
Jan Van der Roost (Tre Skizze)
Jelle Tassyns (The Hollow Men)
Morton Feldman (Rothko Chapel)
Peter Ablinger (Weiss/Weisslich – versie 5b: For St. Anna in Zepernick)
Thomas Smetryns (Bell Environment – String Trio Environment – Amuz Environment)
Arvo Pärt (1983)
Musical team
Koen Kessels (conductor)
Kurt Bikkembergs (conductor)
HERMESensemble pays intimate homage to silence and investigates the role of the acoustic space in contemporary musical poetry. Together with the Flemish composer Bram Van Camp, HERMESensemble started to explore the work of John Cage as long ago as 2004.
In this connection Bram Van Camp wrote his own idiosyncratic interpretation of 4’33”, Cage’s “musical” exploration of silence.
Van Camp’s vision and interpretation nonetheless gives rise to an entirely different performance: he demonstrates that this four and a half minutes can also be extremely energetic and exciting. Turning to the masterpiece of the US composer Morton Feldman HERMESensemble brings a modern homage to the aural space of the Augustinus Chapel. Rothko Chapel is a spiritual and musical topos where spiritual people, believers and non-believers alike, can medidate together in coloured silence.
“Weiss/Weisslich” by the Austrian conceptual artist Peter Ablinger is an experimental search for acoustic purity in different stages (versions). Version 5b was created especially for an ecclesiastical space, with the modified spatial positioning of the performers, making it ideal for performance in the Augustinus chapel (Belgian première).