Three Songs II
scored for soprano and piano
duration 15 minutes
This collection of three songs is set on the poetry of three female poets, each of a different century: Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath and tracy K. Smith.
'Ended, ere it begun'
'The Sleepers'
'Intermezzo'
'I don't miss it'
'Three Songs II' is dedicated to Laurie Janssens and was first performed on June 28, 2018 at deSingel, Antwerp (Belgium).
Klassiek Centraal: That concert with those songs and also a composition for piano and violin as a gift for the first child of the artist couple Jolente De Maeyer and Nikolaas Kende who also performed the work – what an almost frightening thing that reflects the first impressions of what a baby' endured at birth – was of an absolute top level.
I write world class very deliberately. Coppens writes with a strong emotion, which he sets in all forms and tonally quite comprehensible and comprehensible. That is an example of how contemporary art can and may be. In fact, Coppens may well be doing what Mozart did: giving musical expression to all the emotions, feelings, influences and whatever else a person is continuously subjected to. Few are given to do it this way and those who can have something of genius and if so, then Matthias Coppens and Mozart find each other again. And just like Mozart, Coppens managed to attract the ideal singer to give his work, in this case that wonderful song cycle, its world premiere.