Rijnvos: Aphrodíte & Seléne Ives Ensemble & Naomi Sato

• Richard Rijnvos (b. 1964): Aphrodíte:
• 1 Rijnvos: Aphrodíte 27:47
• Seléne:
• 2 Rijnvos: Seléne 24:19
• Total Runtime 52:06

Info zu Rijnvos: Aphrodíte & Seléne

In 2021, under the umbrella title Kosmoscópio, Richard Rijnvos started a series of compositions dedicated to the nine components of the “Musica Universalis”. Commonly referred to as the “Harmony of the Spheres”, this ancient Greek philosophical abstraction contemplates the various proportions in the movements of celestial bodies.

Aphrodíte represents the planet Venus and is scored for Japanese mouthorgan (shō) and string sextet. The work consists of fifteen consecutive sections, the first being an otherworldly approach (kefáli), and the last one being an evaporating departure (ourá). In between we follow thirteen orbits (trochiá): a cosmic observation of the ‘pentagram of Venus’, the apparent path of the planet as observed from Earth.

The successive conjunctions of Venus repeat with an orbital resonance of 13:8, meaning Earth orbits eight times for every thirteen orbits of Venus. The pentagram is sometimes referred to as the petals of Venus due to the path’s visual similarity to a flower.

In an ideal performance the members of the sextet are positioned in a circular space, facing inwards, with the shō in its centre, and the audience all around them in an amphitheatre setting. At the end of the coda, each member of the string sextet walks offstage, one after the other, whilst performing an ostinato, leaving the shō behind, all by itself.

Seléne consists of five main sections, each four minutes in duration, depicting a predominantly monochrome sky, with in its centre the consecutive lunar phases (as seen from Earth): starting at the obscured New Moon, step by step transforming, from a multi-textured Half Moon to a bright polyphonic Full Moon, then back again to the original starting point. The shorter sections in between, each sixty seconds long, represent the intermediate phases.

In an ideal performance the members of the quartet are positioned in a circular space, facing inwards, with the audience all around them in an amphitheatre setting. The cello is the first to split off and rotate outwards, personifying the first glimpse of moonlight (Waxing Crescent). The viola joins when we reach First Quarter, then the second violin (Waxing Gibbous), and midway the first violin (Full Moon). This process is then reversed until a New Moon is, yet again, nowhere to be seen.

Naomi Sato, shō
Ives Ensemble

Naomi Sato
She graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1998.

She finished 2nd phase saxophone studying at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in 2002.

She also studied improvisation and composition at Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

She studied the Sho (Japanese traditional mouth organ) with Ko Ishikawa at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, While studying the Saxophone as major subject. She has collaborated with many composers and Ensembles all over the world. Since 2004 She is the sho player in Atlas Ensemble (Amsterdam, Netherlands) and giving workshops in Atlas Academy.

She performed with Ives Ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, (Netherlands), Diotima Quartet, Ensemble Cairn (France), Fontana Mix Ensemble, Xenia Ensemble (Italy), Ictus Ensemble, B’Rock(Belgium), PHACE (Austria), Ensemble Resonanz (Germany), Shonorities (UK/Greece), Prague Modern (Czech), New Music Network Philadelphia, N-JP project (US), Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra and Orchestra Metropolitain(Canada).

She was invited to the music Festivals like Estovest Festival (2014 in Italy), MA Festival(2015 in Belgium) Ars Musica (2016 in Belgium), Royaumont Festival (2017 and 2020 in France), Nasimi Festival (2018 in Azerbaijan).

Also participating the music theater productions “Rette Uns, Okich” (production of Neuköllner Oper in Berlin 2017 and rerun in 2018), “Koerikoeloem” (production of Gaudeamus muziekweek in Utrecht 2017-2019), “De Yoshi and Musek vum Wind” (production of the Philharmonie Luxembourg in 2018), “The Key” (Tête à Tête Opera Festival in London 2019).

She has given solo recitals and chamber music concerts in Japan, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Greece, America, Canada and Australia with member of her chamber music grope Duo X Project, Japanese traditional instrument trio KODAMA(Sho+Shakuhachi+Koto) and Pochan (sho + percussion) and so on.

She gave lecture concerts about ‘Contemporary music scene through Japanese traditional music’ in Conservatorium van Amsterdam(2000), North Eastern University (2005), UM Dartmouth (2005), University Melbourne (2006), UC Davis (2009)　and Istanbul Bilgi University (2010). She gave composers workshops in University of New Mexico, University of Illinois, University of Chicago, Brigham Young University (2013), University of British Columbia and University of Victoria (2014).

The Ives Ensemble
was founded in 1986 by the Dutch pianist John Snijders, and consists of a steady pool of 14 musicians. The ensemble concentrates on performances of non-conducted contemporary chamber music with a repertoire which has always been centred on the music of Charles Ives, John Cage, Morton Feldman and Stefan Wolpe. Various composers have written especially for the Ives Ensemble, including John Cage, Aldo Clementi, Walter Zimmermann, Gerald Barry, Andrew Culver, Christopher Fox, Fabio Nieder, Ron Ford, Jan van de Putte, James Rolfe, Ivo van Emmerik, Allison Cameron, Richard Rijnvos, Richard Ayres, Micha Hamel, Magnus Robb and Michael van der Aa.

The Ives Ensemble has performed at many international festivals, including tthe Gaudeamus Music Week, the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, the Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, and many others, as well as performing in venues in Bratislava, Prague, Gütersloh, Köln, Essen and Berlin.

On MSVCD 92081 the ensemble is: Rik Andriessen (flutes), Esther Probst (oboe), Hans Petra (clarinets), Jan Willem van der Ham (bassoon), Fons Verspaandonk (horn), Marco Blaauw (trumpet), Jan Bastiani (trombone), Arnlod Marinissen (percussion), John Snijders (piano), Josje ter Haar (violin), Ruben Sanderse (viola), Job ter Haar (cello), Diederik Meijinckens (double bass). The group is conducted (in Etwas lebheft only) by Richard Rijnvos.

Booklet für Rijnvos: Aphrodíte & Seléne