Simeon Holt

Simeon ten Holt - Canto Ostinato for Solo Harp - Assia Cunego (2009) {Etcetera KTC 1398}
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© 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.

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.

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).

This unique 12CD set brings together nine (!) arrangements of Simeon Ten Holt's Canto Ostinato, the best-loved and most famous Dutch piano composition of the 20th century. Jeroen van Veen and friends present the work in a variety of arrangements, ranging from piano solo through multiple pianos, organ, marimbas and synthesizers, revealing many varied aspects of this deceptively simple work. Liner notes on the composer by the artist, who worked in close collaboration till the composer's 2012 death.

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

A new and strikingly effective arrangement of a modern minimalist classic.

A mesmerising piano cycle by the master of Dutch minimalism.

There's perhaps a touch of irony in the title of Dutch pianist and composer Jeroen van Veen's box set Minimal Piano Collection because at nine discs, it's a pretty massive collection. The program booklet notes that he recorded the entire set, which includes more than ten hours of music, in only six days, an astounding feat. In the program notes, van Veen offers a remarkably clear and concise history of minimalism in music. He defines it broadly enough (following the lead of composer and critic Tom Johnson) to include works by Friedrich Nietzsche and Satie. Philip Glass is the composer most widely represented, with three of the set's nine CDs devoted to his music originally for piano, as well as transcriptions from his film scores and operas. Two discs are given to van Veen's mammoth 24 Préludes, organized according to the framework of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. Other composers range from the very well known, such as Michael Nyman, John Adams, Terry Riley, Arvo Pärt, and John Cage, to the familiar-to-specialists, like Tom Johnson, Wim Mertens, and Jacob ter Veldhuis, to those little-known to American audiences, like Klaas de Vries, Simeon ten Holt, John Borstlap, Yann Tiersen, and Carlos Micháns.