Het Collectief, Tom De Cock

In 1929, the Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens made a short film of a rain shower passing over a city. 

Several years later, this film inspired the German composer Hanns Eisler to write a magnificent series of variations for small ensemble, in which the images become glorious, colourful strands of sound. 

This programme treks even further northwards, adding Hans Abrahamsen’s work, with the rain making way for banks of snow. Slowly but surely, an endless fresco of shades of white swirls over the audience – like pure magic. 

So, there are two types of weather in this concert, and two completely contrasting musical worlds. But that doesn’t matter at all for the musicians of Het Collectief, who have expanded into a nonet for the occasion: seasoned as they are in chamber music of the 20th and 21st centuries, they can withstand all the stormy weather, whether it’s made of atonal drops or minimalistic flakes.