Solo Piano Music Volumes

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.

Born in 1923, Simeon ten Holt was a leading Dutch composer who came to attention following studies in Paris with Honegger and Milhaud. His music is best described as minimalist, and draws on the principles of Western harmony as well as those of aleatoricism.

This 5CD compilation is dedicated to Ten Holt's music for piano, an instrument that dominates his output and which for him contained all the possibilities he needed as a composer. Undoubtedly the most famous work featured is Canto Ostinato - a piece of stretched tones and fixed parts which, depending on the amount of repetition_/_phrasing_/_emphasis and volume as determined by the individual performer, provides for an almost endless range of performances.