SPIRITUALS
Mattias Spee has regularly worked with countertenor Arturo den Hartog over the years. Together they bring programs with a focus on music you are unlikely to hear anywhere else. Their selection of repertoire ranges from songs by female composers, black composers and traditional music from Arturo’s home country Suriname.
As a duo, Mattias and Arturo have played at prestigious events, such as the O.Festival in Rotterdam, National Composers Day at the New Music NOW Express, as well as celebrations of national holidays at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, like Keti Koti and National Liberation Day.
Arturo den Hartog & Mattias Spee
Their latest project has been a program of African-American spirituals. They explored a variety of arrangements by several composers from the “New World”, including Moses Hogan, Harry Burleigh, Mark Adamo Mark Hayes, Aaron Copland and Lou Lichtveld. Because the spiritual as a genre is very eclectic, being tied to jazz, gospel, classical, blues and many other styles, Spee and Den Hartog feel a strong connection with this repertoire. They both have a broad musical interest that extends beyond their classical background and feel they particularly shine as a duo when performing this music.
In 2024, the Dutch radio program De Muziekfabriek on NPO Klassiek paid special hommage to Keti Koti and decided to dedicate their entire broadcast to music by black composers. They asked double bassists James Oesi to curate this program, who in turn invited Spee & Den Hartog to perform the spiritual Going Home with him. This song was the basis for the slow movement of Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony from the New World. Oesi discussed Dvořák’s questionable contribution to the struggle for freedom and equality by the black community. Was he paying hommage to his colleagues, or was he appropriating their work? In any case, the trio made a new version, in which they included the orginal text, which had gotten lost in Dvořák’s orchestral arrangement.
Going Home, live at De Muziekfabriek
Video Credits: AVROTROS (2024)
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