Silence #35: End and Beginning; Tomoko Mukaiyama

A concert featuring compositions by two modernist Russian composers: Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006) and Alexander Raskatov (1953), performed by pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama and an ensemble of eight double bassists and percussion. Dies Irae from 1973 is one of Ustvolskaya's most powerful works: the music filled the church space with continuous hammer blows. The sound richness of Alexander Raskatov's composition, based on Russian Orthodox church bells, provided a nice contrast.

Galina Ustvolskaya gained great fame through the performance of her Second Symphony in the Holland Festival in 1989, the year of the fall of the
communism. Alexander Raskatov composed A Dog's Heart (2010) and Animal Farm (2023) for the Netherlands Opera.

The concert was dedicated to the inhabitants and victims of the war in Ukraine. The Tomoko Mukaiyama Foundation and the Oude Kerk donated the proceeds of this concert to Giro555 for the victims of the war in Ukraine. Visitors were able to light a candle in the church.