The restart of concert life is gradually coming into view again. In all those months without live concerts, Het Collectief has been making plans that will enable us to play in front of an audience again as soon as possible.

For Het Collectief, Mahler’s Song of the Earth will always remain connected to the accursed year 2020. And not just because of the corona crisis. When we had finished the recording session at the beginning of January, we did not know that our conductor, and the arranger of this new Mahler transcription Reinbert de Leeuw, would die a good month later.

We have been in the throes of the virus for more than a year now and a remarkable paradox is beginning to emerge. After the umpteenth postponed, adjusted and eventually cancelled concert, our courage sometimes sinks in our shoes. But the enthusiasm to make music together has never been as great as now.