The most colorful saxophone quartet in the world!
The most colorful saxophone quartet in the world!
The most colorful saxophone quartet in the world!
Music by Van Onna, Lago, Schumacher, Matitia and others
In the footsteps of Phileas Fogg, the adventurer of Around the World in Eighty Days, Amstel Quartet plays compositions from all corners of the globe.
Twenty inspiring years of touring and travelling with Amstel Quartet clocked in 80 minutes with Fogg-like punctuality
Music by Morricone, Bernstein, Glass, Wagner, Barber, and Nyman
Stories without words, films without images. In Symphonic Cinema Amstel Quartet lifts film music out of its supporting function and gives it its deserved place in the concert hall.
A collage of famous sound tracks by Morricone, Glass, Barber and Bernstein combined with symphonic works by predecessors such as Richard Wagner and Pyotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky.
Music by Sweelinck, Vrolijk, Fiumara
Exactly four hundred years after his death, the spirit of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck is still very much alive in the Netherlands. In this memorable year, Amstel Quartet brings an ode to the ‘Prince of Musicke’.
They play his famous fantasias and vocal compositions, complemented with work by present-day Dutch composers such as Anthony Fiumara and Renske Vrolijk.
Music by Cage, Creston, Mellits, Lauba, Torke, Barber
With American Dream, Amstel Quartet concentrates entirely on American music composed in the past few decades.
From the down-and-out innovator John Cage to the intriguing post-minimalism of Michael Torke and Mark Mellits: a selection of compositions that were to take the music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to new heights.
Music by Um Kalthoum, Fairuz, Sayid Darwish, Mohammed Abdo, Rahbani Brothers and many others
Anass Habib singing, Amstel Quartet saxophones
Together with Moroccan singer Anass Habib, Amstel Quartet delves into the world of Arabic music, full of emotion and poetry. From Fairuz, ‘the cedar of Lebanon’, to the stirring music of Mohammed Abdu, and from the Egyptian father figure Sayid Darwish to the best-known works of the ‘Lady of Cairo’, Um Kalthoum.
Stories of the Soul is a wonderful exploration of the Arabic soul.
Music by Brel, Trenet, Ferré, Aznavour, Piaf, Shaff, Gall and many others
Philippe Elan singing, Amstel Quartet saxophones, with special guest Thérèse Steinmetz
In March 2019 Amstel Quartet and Philippe Elan presented their new EP Manège à Trois, the sequel to their favourably received Sax Avec Elan! of 2015.
Jacques Brel, Charles Aznavour, Edith Piaf, Ramses Shaff and France Gall: all the golden oldies make an appearance. Thérèse Steinmetz, grande dame of the music scene in the Netherlands, sporadically contributes to these concerts.
“Balm for the soul!” (Volkskrant, 2016)
Music by Franssens, Frey & Pelecis.
Amstel Quartet saxophones, Pascal Meyer piano.
Still music. The genre contends with a centuries-old paradox in which many a composer has tried to find the most intimate beauty.
With the weightless and crystal clear music of Jürg Frey, Georgs Pelecis and Joep Franssens, the Amstel Quartet attempts to unite these two elements. They enter the sparse and slow-moving world of still music, leaving the listener with aninfinite sense of time and space.
Music by Cage, Dufourt, Pärt, Buxtehude, Riley, Franssens, and Glass
In an era when daily life tends to bowl us over and when we seldom give our thoughts free rein, the need for reflection seems to get ever greater.
Classical Zen tries to liberate man temporarily from this overwhelming environment - with the tranquil music of Arvo Pärt, the heavenly notes of Joep Franssens and the hypnotic patterns of minimalist masters Philip Glass and Terry Riley as a remedy.
Music by Kraftwerk, Martland, Biegai, Torke, Kypski
Amstel Quartet, sax en EWI (electronic wind instruments)
Kypski, electronics
Hendrik Walther, visuals
Man Machine, Pseudo human being, Man Machine, Super human being - KRAFTWERK
Exactly 40 years ago Kraftwerk released Der Mensch-Maschine. The legendary album announced the birth of a new genre of electronic music, the consequences of which are still felt today. Not only are countless artists still inspired by the synth pop the German foursome produced - Kraftwerk, in turn, listened closely to classical electronic pioneers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Henry. In this tribute the Amstel Quartet combines Kraftwerk tracks from The Man-Machine with new compositions by German composer Christina Biegai. Turntablist Kypski improvises on the Krautrock-sounds and Hendrik Walther designed video art for this super human performance. We are the robots.
Music by Glass, Fiumara, Kypski. With video projections by Hendrik Walther.
Philip Glass is one of the most influential and major composers of our time. During this concert the Amstel Quartet will play Glass’ best work, combined with the work of composer and Glass enthusiast Anthony Fiumara. Electronic composer Kypski brings the various pieces together, creating an evening-long remix. A semi-staged concert in the style of Philip Glass’ former loft-happenings, in which genres and art mediums seamlessly flowed into one another. The Amstel Quartet will play their choice from his rich oeuvre, from young minimalism through to the more recent cinematic pieces. Hendrik Walther created the minimalist video images in a Glassian vein.
