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To hell! (2005-2008)
recomposition for viola and orchestra		 << One back
plons (2009)
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Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Yannick Nézet-Séguin
 Instrumentation: vla solo, picc, 2 fl, 2 ob, 2 cl, b-cl, 2 fag, c-fag, 4 cor, 3 trp, 3 trbn, tb, harp, 3 perc, vl1, vl2, vla, vlc, cb

Duration: ± 11 minutes

First performance original version: 20 april 2005 in de Vereeniging in Nijmegen door Susanne van Els en het Schönberg Ensemble o.l.v. Reinbert de Leeuw

Recomposition commissioned by: Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

Reviews: "The 'last' concert of the home-orchestra started with a new symphonic version of To Hell!, composed in 2005 for viola and ensemble by Mayke Nas. The piece is typical for the retro-trend: the medieval story about Mariken van Nimwegen as a straussian 'Symphonische Dichtung' with quite some strong rhythmical stravinskyan music."
(Kasper Jansen in NRC, 6 april 2009)

"Like a fiddler in the tradition of Appalachian Swing he reached the end of Mayke Nas' To Hell!. The public yelled back in style. 'Ji-haa!'."
(Guido van Oorschot in Volkskrant, 6 april 2009)


Audio sample (1'38" / 1.9 Mb)
Susanne van Els & the Schönberg Ensemble cond. Reinbert de Leeuw
In the famous Dutch Faust-legend avant la lettre, “Mariken van Nieumeghen” (16th century), a pious girl is sent to the market in Nijmegen by her uncle. At dusk, she knocks on the door of an aunt in search of a bed for the night. But her aunt unexpectedly throws the door in her face. Upset, the girl sits down under a bush and starts to cry. This is the perfect moment for the devil, or the viola in To hell!, to seize the opportunity.

He introduces himself as a comforting soulmate, who - with a musical witticism - resembles the protagonist from another famous soul-to-the-devil-selling-story: “L'histoire du soldat”, by Stravinsky. The girl lets herself be seduced by the devil and taken to Antwerp. There, the devil raises hell in all bars and inns. He knows how to secretively sow jealousy and discord and how to get drunkards to fight furiously. Every night someone ends up dead.

The story of Mariken continues (no medieval story without a moral), but for To hell!, this is where it ends: the viola celebrates in the role of the devil, and hell is portrayed as a festive carousal.