Music is ritual. The act of performing, the act of listening, the act of sounding. A ritual that encompasses not only the audience and musicians, not only the particular pieces being performed, but also (and integrally) the location in which that music is performed. Oerknal is honored to present just such a ritual in conjunction with the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam: names, erased.

This concert is an offshoot of our multi-season Morton Feldman series. Feldman’s expansive sound world is a perfect compliment to the Portuguese Synagogue’s rich, reverberative acoustics; a perfect melding of sound and space. We offer two of Feldman’s most delicate and meditative pieces: The Viola in My Life 3 and the breathtaking Four Instruments of 1965 scored for a quartet of violin, cello, piano, and chimes. We pair Feldman’s music with two solo pieces by German-American composer Reiko Füting. Reiko’s music has been hailed as ‘niet-ironishce 16de eeuwse schoonheid’ by the NRC and is a world in which the music of Bach, Berg and Ligeti is refracted through a prism of Baroque ornamentation and contemporary gesture. Rounding out the program is chorus by Eva-Maria Houben, a piece scored for ‘any four instruments’ and a fitting companion to both Feldman’s timeless textures and the vast ritual and acoustic possibilities of the Portuguese Synagogue.