Starter Packs

Complete your collection with these curated titles, grouped at a special discount.

Shop Now
Brilliant Classics

Holt: Meandres

$8.49
$16.99 Save 50%

Details

Composer
Simeon ten Holt
Artist
Polo De Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
Format
CD
Label
Brilliant Classics
Released
Jun 14, 2024
Catalog #
BRI97005
UPC
5028421970059

About

A mesmerising piano cycle by the master of Dutch minimalism. 'I write music like this not because I'm isolated,' Simeon Ten Holt once said. 'I'm isolated because I write music like this.' And yet, since his death in 2012, performances and recordings of his music have multiplied like one of his motivic cells, gathering energy and momentum to spread the reputation of a composer who took the rhythmic precepts of American minimalists such as Reich and Glass, and coloured them with a European-Romantic glow of harmony. Composed in 1995-97 for four pianos, Meandres is another monumental yet approachable piano cycle in the mould of his celebrated Canto Ostinato, more complex and more chromatic than the earlier cycle but sharing with it a hypnotic clarity and an improvisatory freedom which leaves a good deal of liberty to the performers. At first, there is no melody, in the usual sense of the word. However, over time, a pattern emerges like a puzzle taking shape before the listener. The title refers to the meandering course of rivers, which takes them to mountain slopes as well as lowlands. 'Because it is like a work in progress which never reaches closure,' remarks the composer, 'the meandering structure of the piece is quite demanding on the performers. It is the condensation of an inquiry into the very limits of time and space.' This recording of Meandres was made in 1999 by a team of Dutch pianists who had all worked with Ten Holt on his music, and accordingly it vibrates with disciplined authenticity. Sharp accents continually break and articulate the line and the restatement of the germinal motif, but it always loops back to a cadence which Robert Schumann would have recognised. Combining Baroque rigour with early-Romantic harmony and late-20th-century form, Meandres is both post-modern and timeless as an extension of piano literature.

Tracklist 23 tracks

  1. 1 Part I: Section 1 04:36
    Track
    1
    Title
    Part I: Section 1
    Duration
    04:36
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  2. 2 Part I: Section 8 08:30
    Track
    2
    Title
    Part I: Section 8
    Duration
    08:30
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  3. 3 Part I: Section 21 01:50
    Track
    3
    Title
    Part I: Section 21
    Duration
    01:50
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  4. 4 Part I: Section 31 01:06
    Track
    4
    Title
    Part I: Section 31
    Duration
    01:06
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  5. 5 Part I: Section 37 02:35
    Track
    5
    Title
    Part I: Section 37
    Duration
    02:35
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  6. 6 Part I: Section 42 04:47
    Track
    6
    Title
    Part I: Section 42
    Duration
    04:47
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  7. 7 Part I: Section 53 09:21
    Track
    7
    Title
    Part I: Section 53
    Duration
    09:21
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  8. 8 Part I: Section 74 05:58
    Track
    8
    Title
    Part I: Section 74
    Duration
    05:58
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  9. 9 Part II: Section 87 01:41
    Track
    9
    Title
    Part II: Section 87
    Duration
    01:41
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  10. 10 Part II: Section 88 03:29
    Track
    10
    Title
    Part II: Section 88
    Duration
    03:29
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  11. 11 Part II: Section 101 03:04
    Track
    11
    Title
    Part II: Section 101
    Duration
    03:04
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  12. 12 Part II: Section 106 05:49
    Track
    12
    Title
    Part II: Section 106
    Duration
    05:49
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  13. 13 Part II: Section 122 01:10
    Track
    13
    Title
    Part II: Section 122
    Duration
    01:10
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  14. 14 Part II: Section 125 01:49
    Track
    14
    Title
    Part II: Section 125
    Duration
    01:49
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  15. 15 Part II: Section 130 01:23
    Track
    15
    Title
    Part II: Section 130
    Duration
    01:23
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  16. 16 Part II: Section 135 01:20
    Track
    16
    Title
    Part II: Section 135
    Duration
    01:20
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  17. 17 Part II: Section 138 01:59
    Track
    17
    Title
    Part II: Section 138
    Duration
    01:59
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  18. 18 Part II: Section 145 01:13
    Track
    18
    Title
    Part II: Section 145
    Duration
    01:13
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  19. 19 Part II: Section 149 02:01
    Track
    19
    Title
    Part II: Section 149
    Duration
    02:01
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  20. 20 Part II: Section 155 01:56
    Track
    20
    Title
    Part II: Section 155
    Duration
    01:56
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  21. 21 Part II: Section 161 02:27
    Track
    21
    Title
    Part II: Section 161
    Duration
    02:27
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  22. 22 Part II: Section 167 01:42
    Track
    22
    Title
    Part II: Section 167
    Duration
    01:42
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg
  23. 23 Part II: Section 168 02:42
    Track
    23
    Title
    Part II: Section 168
    Duration
    02:42
    Composer
    Simeon ten Holt
    Performer
    Polo de Haas, Kees Wieringa, Ellen Dijkhuizen, Fred Oldenburg