In his First Symphony, Joey Roukens reaches a new milestone

On the surface, there were similarities between the two premieres presented bythe Rotterdam Philharmonic and conductor André de Ridder. The American MasonBates wrote a Piano Concerto (2021) for world star Daniil Trifonov that washeard for the first time in the Netherlands; Joey Roukens composed his FirstSymphony. Both composers have been influenced by pop, dance and film music intheir orchestration, but the difference in quality was almost embarrassing.Roukens turned out to be in a class of its own.

Bates, also a DJ, proved to be a musician of grand gestures. The opening partwas intriguing enough, with fairytale Efteling tunes, ominously shiftingbasses, clattering castanets, a pumping beat and a somewhat haphazard brassfanfare. In the meantime Trifonov conjured up somewhat trivial, but layeredquasi-pop from the keyboard. Then things went terribly wrong. The middlesection, constructed from pathetic piano clichés, was so kitschy that itbecame absurd: muscular, overly oiled nothingness. The propulsive final inseven beats was so clumsy that even the Rotterdam Philharmonic couldn’t makeanything of it.

Joey Roukens and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Edward Lee

Quirky ingenuity

No, then Roukens. He has been excelling in idiosyncratic orchestral music foryears and at the age of forty he thought it was time for a real ‘symphony’ infour movements, which he himself nicknamed ‘Kaleidoscopic’. Rouken’s music hasalways been eclectic and multicolored, but here he reaches a new milestone interms of technical ingenuity and sense of form. This piece deserves to beplayed very often, so that music lovers can hear for themselves how compellingit is – even without the expense of a disappointing support act.

With Roukens, of course, no traditional allegro as the first part. Celesta andharp repeated an orphaned note, cinematic strings swelled: the music unfoldedpatiently, far from storming heaven. Only after a smooth zappaesque dance anda threatening near-climax with pulsating copper did the carefully builttension reach a thunderous discharge. It had John Adams-esque allure, as theentire history of music condensed into a sparking, barely controllable forcefield. The ghost code after that was beautiful.

An endless melody formed the core of the slow second movement, ‘Ayre’, with anethereal twist that didn’t quite pan out. But Roukens’ atmosphere managementturned out to be flawless: part three, ‘Scherzo’, rubbed Bates under the nosehow you do write exciting notes in a driving seven-count measure. The Scherzoturned out to be full-blooded finale music with a fantastic ending, a bold andvirtuoso nod to bombastic nineteenth-century climaxes. It created space for areturn to the stillness of the beginning, but then more grim and wiser, forthe final movement, an imposing blooming, purifying Adagio.

More Roukens is coming: be Bosch Requiem will premiere on 3 November inAmsterdam and can then be heard during November Music (Den Bosch) and inEnschede.

_Second movement from Roukens ‘ ‘Rising Phenix’ (2014) for choir and