Holt / Wieringa / Oldenburg - Meandres [CD]

A mesmerising piano cycle by the masterof Dutch minimalism.'I write music like this not because I'misolated,' Simeon Ten Holt once said. 'I'misolated because I write music like this.'And yet, since his death in 2012,performances and recordings of his musichave multiplied like one of his motiviccells, gathering energy and momentum tospread the reputation of a composer whotook the rhythmic precepts of Americanminimalists such as Reich and Glass, andcoloured them with a European-Romanticglow of harmony.Composed in 1995-97 for four pianos,Meandres is another monumental yetapproachable piano cycle in the mould ofhis celebrated Canto Ostinato, morecomplex and more chromatic than theearlier cycle but sharing with it a hypnoticclarity and an improvisatory freedom whichleaves a good deal of liberty to theperformers. At first, there is no melody, inthe usual sense of the word. However, overtime, a pattern emerges like a puzzle takingshape before the listener.The title refers to the meandering course ofrivers, which takes them to mountain slopesas well as lowlands. 'Because it is like awork in progress which never reachesclosure,' remarks the composer, 'themeandering structure of the piece is quitedemanding on the performers. It is thecondensation of an inquiry into the verylimits of time and space.'This recording of Meandres was made in 1999by a team of Dutch pianists who had all workedwith Ten Holt on his music, and accordingly itvibrates with disciplined authenticity. Sharpaccents continually break and articulate the lineand the restatement of the germinal motif, butit always loops back to a cadence which RobertSchumann would have recognised. CombiningBaroque rigour with early-Romantic harmonyand late-20th-century form, Meandres is bothpost-modern and timeless as an extension ofpiano literature.