Joey Roukens’ Requiem is a delicate web of rhythmic shifts ★★★★☆

A soft murmur forces silence in the darkened room. The flowing sound comes from the rainmaker from the percussion kitchen of Amsterdam Sinfonietta, decorated for the Requiem by Joey Roukens. Under the direction of the Swedish choir director Sofi Jeannin, the ensemble, together with the Nederlands Kamerkoor, will play Roukens’ brand new work in Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam.

Concertmaster Jacobien Rozemond lets her violin whisper in terror. The double basses play a sliding movement from low to high, a short shiver runs down your back. The upward sliding figure is a recurring element in Roukens’ Requiemwhich he wrote for the November Music festival in Den Bosch and Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ.

Roukens’ contribution to the diverse landscape of funeral masses – the ‘genre’ has evolved over the centuries in a textual, stylistic and religious (or rather secular) way – is the perfect combination of contemporary and traditional. He kept most of the masses, but the Latin text of Dies Irae (the dreaded Day of Judgment) he replaced with what he considered milder text about the day of wrath from the Bible book of Zephaniah.

Roukens also added a number of comforting poems, such as I am not there (after the poem by Clare Harner), lovingly sung by the Nederlands Kamerkoor. It is a delicate web of rhythmic shifts, with again those upward movements in the well-playing strings, under a strong strike from Jeannin.

Tight and delirious, the choir sings – now no up- but gradual downward movement – ​​the Agnus Deic, despite the little tonal hold. The chilling, frenetic strings fit right under a scary thriller, yet the characteristic warmth of Amsterdam Sinfonietta glows through it. Calm and sober, ‘good night’ sounds from the comforting choruses.