It seemed like such a good year for Wim Henderickx, Belgium’s most prominentcontemporary composer. His opera was performed at Opera Vlaanderen in May Theconvert premiered, based on Stefan Hertmans’ 2016 novel of the same name. Itbecame the opera house’s best-attended contemporary production in twentyyears. Two months earlier, the premiere of his beautiful, yoga-inspired bassetclarinet concerto sounded in Glasgow Sutra , which was also released on CD.But on Sunday evening the news that Wim Henderickx died at home that afternooncame completely unexpectedly. He was sixty years old.
The news was brought out by Muziektheater Transparant, the company whereHenderickx had been house composer since 1996. Transparent calls Henderickx”perhaps the most enthusiastic artist Flanders ever had”, in the Facebookmessage: “With his far too early passing, the Flemish and international artworld loses a figurehead.”
Henderickx started his music career as a drummer in jazz and rock bands, thenstudied percussion and composition at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp andsonology at the IRCAM in Paris and at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Hewas a timpanist with the New Belgian Chamber Orchestra and has been composingfor all Belgian orchestras since 1990. In addition to being house composer ofMuziektheater Transparant, Henderickx has also been artist in residence withthe Antwerp Symphony Orchestra since 2013.
Detached kind
Of canzone in 2008 he composed the compulsory work for the Queen ElisabethCompetition for singing for voice and piano. In 2019, his orchestral work went_Enigma VIII_ (2019) premiered at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall inLondon, by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins,who championed Henderickx’s music and conducted many of his performances.
Henderickx explores “sound worlds of the more detached kind,” wrote NRC in2020 on the CD recording of Sacred places III. Building bridges and mixinginfluences were a constant in his oeuvre: sound research, electronics, old andtraditional music, lyrical beauty, it’s all there. Non-Western musictraditions and Eastern philosophy inspired Henderickx to write his highlydiverse, seven-part tantric cycle (2004-2010).
In the Netherlands, Henderickx did not have the fame he enjoyed in Belgium,but his music could still be heard here regularly. His cello concerto wasperformed during the 2018 Amsterdam Cello Biennale Sangit premiered, withJean-Guihen Queyras as soloist and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra conducted bythe then 22-year-old Klaus Mäkelä. In the 2011 Holland Festival it wasorchestral work Tejas (2008), called ‘a spectacular symphonic work’ in thisnewspaper, premiered.
Crown on his oeuvre
Muziektheater Transparant and Cappella Amsterdam toured in 2017 with theritual music theatre Revelations , about the mystic Hadewijch. “The factthat Revelations lasts is due to the music. Oriental spiced flute and violinmelodies, crystalline vocalises and renaissance-like choral singing onspherical soundscapes (Jorrit Tamminga) are intersected at exactly the rightmoments by temperamental percussion and piercing quarter vocals”, concluded_NRC_.
Of The convert Henderickx now appears to have put the crown on his oeuvre.As soon as he read Hertmans’ novel, he said he knew that the story wouldbecome his ‘great opera’. From June 18, the opera could be seen for free onthe Operavision platform for six months – exactly until last Sunday. Therewere still several projects in the pipeline, but they have now been broken.
On Friday 20 January, the Residentieorkest and soloist Annelien van Wauwe willplay the Dutch premiere of the basset clarinet concerto in The Hague Sutra ,the first part of which is called ‘Breath of life’. The program will be in atotally new light.