Escher drew inspiration from Impressionism, and De Leeuw and Schönberger also have their own distinctive styles; with his enchanting music, Wantenaar represents a new generation of composers. Dutch choral music could not ask for a better ambassador than Cappella Amsterdam.

Schönberger’s new composition, De opstijging, tells the story of hot-air balloonists and the human drive to push boundaries. De opstijging is about a hot-air balloon that rises higher and higher until it disappears from view. Composer Elmer Schönberger set music to texts by Lars Gustafsson, Guy de Maupassant, and Emily Dickinson, supplemented with excerpts from logbooks that nineteenth-century balloonists kept during their voyages. “I realized fairly quickly that this time, it needed to be presented in a theatrical way,” says Schönberger.

That is why the choir will be joined on stage by actor Vincent van der Valk. He appears as an eyewitness who seems to be following the balloon flight up close and captures in words what is unfolding before his eyes: a man in a top hat preparing for the journey, a finger tapping the barometer, the moment the balloon takes off, and the landscape beneath him slowly fading from view.