Our Head of the Early Music Department Teunis van der Zwart and our Main Subject Teachers Fortepiano and Historically Informed Practice, Petra Somlai and Bart van Oort, would like to introduce to you our newest member of the KonCon Family: The Streicher 1876 Fortepiano!
The Streicher is a loan instrument made possible by Het Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds.
The Royal Conservatoire was one of the first conservatories in the world to start a fortepiano class. Since the early 1970, many of our fortepiano students graduated, started successful careers and won international competitions.
With historical instruments such as the Streicher, we can interpret and perform the most important Classical and Early Romantic pieces and even go beyond Schumann and Chopin, further to compositions of Brahms and play those in a historically informed way as well.
These instruments are of tremendous value. That’s why they ‘live’ in special rooms which are climate-controlled and only accessible by a selected group of students and teachers. Soon, the Streicher will move to our new home AMARE, where it also gets its own climate-controlled room.
So why are these instruments of such a value to the Royal Conservatoire?
More and more musicians decide to perform and record on historical instruments when it comes to repertoire of the late 19th century. Therefore, more students want to study on historical instruments as well. Many (modernly trained) pianists want to specialize in historical performance practice next to their main subject studies and especially the romantic repertoire is very popular.
Also, in terms of research, the Streicher and other historical instruments enrich our conservatoire. With historical instrument such as the Streicher, our students can explore the style and the technical developments between 1750 and 1900.
Enjoy this little video of the Streicher arriving at the Royal Conservatoire. For more information on studying Early Music at the Royal Conservatoire, please click here.
Video
Film: Jorieke de Vet
Music: Benjamin Godard. Nocturne in F major, op 68 (ca 1882) AAC. Played and recorded by Main Subject Teacher Early Music Fortepiano Bart van Oort
