Het Muziek: Andriessen’s De Materie

Nearly a decade after it was last heard live in the Netherlands, Louis Andriessen’s monumental De Materie returns in Rotterdam with Het Muziek on the stage of de Doelen. Written between 1984 and 1988, it is built on a scale that still feels startling: 63 musicians, four movements drawing on texts from four different centuries, and an opening that begins with 144 chords played by the full ensemble. 

The piece moves through big, idea-driven chapters rather than a single storyline. One movement nods to the Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (1581), the declaration linked to Dutch independence; another turns to the mystic Hadewijch and her Seventh Vision; and the final section honours Madame Curie, tying scientific discovery to the work’s obsession with matter and energy. There is also a movement titled De Stijl, where Andriessen’s tight rhythmic writing and pulsing groove explicitly salutes Mondriaan and the geometric clarity of the De Stijl movement. 

Date: Saturday 17 January 2026 
Start: 20:15 
Venue: de Doelen, Grote Zaal, Schouwburgplein 50, 3012 CL Rotterdam 
Tickets: €11.50–€62 (including service costs; youth and CJP pricing available) 
On stage: Het Muziek (ensemble for new music); Bas Wiegers (conductor); Elisabeth Hetherington (soprano)