related works
Le café de nuit : for orchestra / Jan-Peter de Graaff
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
picc 2fl 2ob eh 2cl cl-b 4h 3tpt 2trb trb-b tb timp 3perc hp pf cel str
Largo from the Sinfonia in memoriam Maurice Ravel : for orchestra, 1940 / Rudolf Escher
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
4344 3sax 3321 timp 2perc cel 2hp str
Suite voor orkest : (1954) / Karel Mengelberg
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
2222 2200 timp str
'Lost & Found twenty-five' : Music-dance theatre (with tape) / Hanna Kulenty
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
2fl cl sax-s sax-a trp 2h 2trb t perc pf el.g el.g-b
composition
Le café de nuit : for orchestra / Jan-Peter de Graaff
Other authors:
Graaff, Jan-Peter de
(Composer)
Description:
"Le café de nuit" is a 13-minute fantasia/nocturne for orchestra, based on the painting (with the same name) by Vincent van Gogh, and the letters he wrote to this brother Theo during his stay in Arles, where he rented a studio above the café. In the letters, he describes this place as "a place where you can ruin yourself, go mad, commit crimes". This subject really interested me as a composer as there is really a conflict within the concept of a café. Usually, one goes to a café to escape the ongoing world and everyday problems, to dance, to celebrate life and to drink and go drunk to immerse oneself in a different reality. However, there is a danger, as van Gogh states, as the café also influences the world outside. It is a place where the darkest side of human behaviour emerges. In the piece I tried to find this strange balance between joy and danger, between alertness (or even panic) and being drunk, between passion and truth.
Jan-Peter de Graaff