Donna Agrell Doctoral Degree
docARTES PhD candidate Donna Agrell will graduate on Tuesday 8 December 2015
Defence and artistic presentation
On Tuesday 8 December 2015 docARTES candidate Donna Agrell will finish her PhD trajectory with the defence of her thesis "Repertoire for a Swedish Bassoon Virtuoso. Approaching early nineteenth-century works composed for Frans Preumayr with an original Grenser & Wiesner bassoon".
The day before, on Monday 7 December 2015, she will present the artistic outcomes of her research project in the form of a lecture-concert at the Waalse Kerk.
Brief description of her research project
Frans Preumayr's nineteenth century virtuosic bassoon repertoire - An approach with a fine Grenser & Wiesner bassoon from Dresden: Issues of material and technique
What techniques and tools must be developed by period bassoonists in order to successfully approach the performance of Frans Preumayr's virtuosic repertoire?
"A Very Fine Eleven-Keyed Stained Maple Bassoon by H. Grenser & Wiesner, Dresden, circa 1825" - as titled in an entry in a London auction catalogue - is one of the few surviving examples of a complete period bassoon with all its parts, offering valuable information for both period instrument builders and players today.
This research project is based specifically on the unique opportunity that the Grenser & Wiesner instrument presents us with: an investigation of early nineteenth century bassoon works written for the Swedish virtuoso Frans Preumayr by composers such as Franz Berwald and Bernhard Henrik Crusell.
The supervising team consists of:
Prof.dr.h.c. Ton Koopman - Leiden University
Prof. Frans de Ruiter - Leiden University
Dr. Martin Kirnbauer - Universität Basel