Droplets II (TRPTK Sessions EP)

It is May 27, 2020, and we are in the final days of the first national lockdown in which concert life in the Netherlands has come to a complete standstill. The world-renowned Grand Hall of the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam is completely empty that afternoon. Except for one drummer. Konstantyn Napolov plays there, on only one minuscule gong (a Chinese opera gong with a diameter of 13″ to be precise) that was made in Wuhan, a piece by the Dutch composer Christiaan Richter, titled ‘Droplets II’.

A good response to the spirit of the times, one would say, but no, according to the composer, neither the title of the piece nor the choice for an instrument from the place where the virus first appeared have anything to do with the current coronation time and this coincidence is based on coincidence. In fact, the piece, part of a cycle of four pieces for percussion solo, was already written in 2017 for Napolov and premiered by him as part of the Gaudeamus Music Week in Utrecht.