• Tracks

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. The process of listening to this music is similar to that of experiencing a ritual, and the same can be said of the other works on the compilation: Natalon in E, Aforisme II, the four Solos Devils Dances and Eadem Sed Aliter, the latter of which demands a high level of skill through the ‘two sixteenths’ separation between the left and right hand. Performing these works is the acclaimed Dutch pianist Jeroen van Veen, a Brilliant Classics regular who is one of Ten Holt’s biggest advocates. The release is an engaging follow-up to his 11CD box set with Ten Holt (‘Multiple Piano Works’) and the 9CD ‘Minimal Piano Collection’, which includes his own 24 minimal preludes.