Winterreise

Five women - all singers- and a pianist have pooled their talents by creating the Coco Collectief, a highly popular, innovative and talented ensemble. The singers Wendeline van Houten, Merlijn Runia, Jannelieke Schmidt, Nikki Treurniet, Ellen Valkenburg and pianist Maurice Lammerts van Bueren all made each others’ acquaintance at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

The Collectief has an extremely broad repertoire, ranging from arrangements of Brahms to Cage and from Piazzolla to an arrangement of Bangalore that was made specially for the ensemble by Rembrandt Frerichs. The other arrangements performed by the ensemble are made by Maurice Lammerts van Bueren and Jannelieke Schmidt.

The Collectief has performed in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and has appeared on Dutch Radio 4 in Spiegelzaal, Podium op zaterdagavond, Licht op 4 and Opium op 4. They also appear regularly on Brava TV and can frequently be heard on Concertzender.

The Collectief’s most recent concert programme, an arrangement of Schubert’s Winterreise in an unusual staging by Marc Pantus — was first performed during the winter of 2016. Their concerts of this programme met with full houses and were extremely well received by both press and public.

The members of the Coco Collectief have created a tightly-woven ensemble, although they make no attempt to emulate a choral sound. The specific character of the ensemble stems from the fact that each of the singers is a soloist in her own right. All five singers as well as their pianist pursue solo careers both in the Netherlands and abroad.

When the Coco Collectief decided to present their version of Die Winterreise, it was immediately clear that an arrangement for five female singers would be completely different from the original for one male voice. How different, though, should it be? Should the arrangements differ greatly from Schubert in style, or should I respect his style closely? I decided upon the latter option: not only do I think this was the most respectful way to treat the composer, but it also suited my own way of making arrangements the best.
Maurice Lammerts van Bueren