Simeon Holt

Very recently passed away at age 89 Simeon ten Holt was the Icon of Dutch minimalism. His works for multiple pianos include his most famous work, ‘Canto Ostinato’, which gained cult status with a large audience not necessarily familiar with traditional classical music. The slowly shifting repeated patterns in Ten Holt’s music have a hypnotic and hallucinatory effect on listeners, during concerts which may take several hours. Dutch pianist Jeroen van Veen is “the leading exponent of minimalism in Holland” (Alan Swanson in Fanfare), a close acquaintance of Ten Holt, the ideal interpreter of his music.

Simeon ten Holt was a Dutch contemporary classical composer. Ten Holt was born in Bergen, North Holland, the Netherlands, and studied with Jakob van Domselaer, eventually developing a highly personal style of minimal composition. Van Domselaers influence on ten Holts musical philosophy was considerable, with the younger composer picking up van Domselaers interests in the links between music and visual art, in musics relationship with mathematics, and in the use of the piano as a principal instrument in his compositions.

Simeon ten Holt - Canto Ostinato for Solo Harp - Assia Cunego (2009) {Etcetera KTC 1398}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 230 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 173 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 24 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2009 Etcetera Records | KTC 1398
Classical / Modern Classical / 20th Century / Harp

Simeon ten Holt worked out this composition over several years. The harp brings forth a more transparent, more diffuse timbre than the piano, a singing tone-space. Simeon ten Holt (1923-2012), one of the Netherlands' preeminent minimalists, is best known for Canto Ostinato, for one or more keyboards. The piece is modular, with 106 sections, each of which can be repeated an infinite number of times, left to the performers' discretion. The composer estimates that the minimum length of time required for the piece to make the appropriate impact is about 30 minutes. The score is arranged so that there is enough material for at least four players, and in its most popular configuration, it's played by four pianos. When a single player tackles it, though, he/she is given the choice of playing any of the lines, so there is room for considerable variation between performances in which material gets highlighted. In this recording, Assia Cunego plays the work on solo harp.

Brilliant Classics is proud to present Canto Ostinato XXL, a recording that brings a new perspective to Simeon ten Holt’s minimalist composition by adding a Romantic organ to the work’s original scoring for four pianos – a combination never before attempted. The result is the most beautiful and harmonious of sounds, one that captures Canto Ostinato’s emotional variety and depth through building on the sweetness and simplicity that inhabit this acclaimed composition, first performed in 1979.

Canto Ostinato, scored for four grand pianos, is the quintessential example of Ten Holt's groundbreaking minimalist style, one of his most well-known and critically-acclaimed compositions. Constructed using short cells that can be repeated an indeterminate number of times by performers, the music is hypnotic and emotionally moving, taking listeners on a journey through musical landscapes…

Simeon ten Holt is a Dutch composer born in 1923. He studied with Jakob van Domselaer and in Paris with Milhaud and Honegger, then went through various compositional phases, first struggling out of van Domselaer's tonal influence, then becoming serially tonal (Berg obviously proves that this in no contradiction in terms), e.g. striving to organize the tonal material according to serial principles.

Simeon ten Holt is best known for his Canto Ostinato. This CD presents a live performance from 1995 of the lesser known Shadow nor prey (schaduw noch prooi) combined with Hymn to a great City by Arvo Pärt

Minimalism has had its ups and downs in our era. But if you think you know all there is to know about it, as I occasionally do (wrongly), there is something that will change your mind. I found an experience like that when I recently was sent the 4-CD version of Canto Ostinato XXL, a composition by Simeon Ten Holt (1927-2012). This version is played by four grand pianos and a full cathedral pipe organ, by Jeroen van Veen and Friends (Brilliant 94990 4-CDs).

A new recording of the Dutch minimalist classic made by two of its most experienced champions.