Première van Fujikura’s Dubbelconcert

Unexpected request

Fujikura is a Japanese composer who moved to London as an adolescent and has built an impressive career with pieces that combine new techniques with the sound of Japanese folklore. Fujikura says that one day he received a phone call from an unknown person asking: 'Can you write a double concerto with Claire Chase?' Chase is a flutist who has dedicated herself to playing new repertoire. Fujikura calls Chase his spiritual sister and has already written a flute concerto for her. The unknown person who asked the question turned out to be Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Akiko Suwanai will take over the Dutch premiere from her.

Soloists circling each other

Fujikura felt challenged by the idea of two soloists operating in the same register: like two birds circling each other and flying in the same direction. Fujikura's new music is accompanied by La mer , a work with which Claude Debussy would give a new face to twentieth-century music. Debussy insisted that the score be adorned with The Great Wave, a woodcut by the Japanese artist Hokusai.