 On sait le pianiste Jeroen Van Veen prolixe, le voici généreux, œuvrant (souvent accompagné de Sandra Van Veen, Fred Oldenburg ou Irene Russo), dans ce coffret de 20 disques, à rassembler les œuvres pour piano de Simeon ten Holt (1923-2012), le compositeur hollandais, particulièrement connu pour son "Canto Ostinato". Sa musique, après qu’il a renoncé au sérialisme, se recentre sur la répétition et la tonalité (laissant l’écriture dodécaphonique pour des triades simples et des motifs rythmiques évolutifs), d’inspiration minimaliste (Horizon, Incantatie IV…), mais avec un espace évolutif pour son interprétation : chaque composition se démultiplie, selon un script établi, et chaque concert est unique – certains, comme celui de Lemniscaat, joué à Bergen, touchant presque aux 24 heures (une intégrale au sens rigoureux du terme est donc impossible) – mais bien identifié à un ensemble plus large. Le premier contact de Van Veen avec le compositeur hollandais, dont l’esthétique se distingue de l’approche minimaliste américaine (Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Terry Riley), se fait, jeune, par hasard et à la radio (la première d’Horizon) bien avant de savoir de qui il s’agit ; depuis, le pianiste préside la Fondation érigée pour en diffuser la musique. (Bernard Vincken) The most complete collection ever issued of the Dutch Minimalist master, including the famous Canto Ostinato but also many previously unreleased recordings, all made by a pianist with an international reputation in the field of Minimalism. ‘Given his music’s virtuoso demands, and its spirituality, it is tempting to call him the Franz Liszt of minimalism.’ This assessment of Simeon Ten Holt by an American reviewer points to Ten Holt’s originality, his industry and his influence over modern Minimalism in the generations after its 1960s birth in America. As with Liszt in Weimar during the 1850s and 60s, many paths have led to and from Ten Holt’s music. It has long been recognised that with Canto Ostinato, his flexible sequence of 92 variations on a simple bass-line, Ten Holt built a masterpiece to stand alongside the likes of In C by Terry Riley, and Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. However, this box-set shows how much more there is to Ten Holt. The boy Simeon was introduced to the world of music by hearing his father play the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata one night, and from then on he was entranced by the possibilities of stretching time through patterns. Late in life, he remarked: ‘I am the time, and I have the time.’ This box traces his development as has never been possible before, from the early untitled Compositions, comparable to the Abstract Expressionist canvases of the time, through miniatures such as sets of Epigrams and Aphorisms, to the triumph of Canto Ostinato, and then far beyond, to the mystical cycles of Lemniscaat, Horizon and finally the renewed vigour of Eadem Sed Aliter (‘The Same but Different’), a late piece which, as the composer remarked, ‘takes away the limits of the concepts of ‘beginning’ and ‘ending’, ‘before’ and ‘after’.’ As he explains in a personal introduction, Jeroen van Veen first encountered the music of Ten Holt as a child, listening to the radio to (as he discovered much later) the premiere of Horizon: ‘the notes melted together to create such a rich tapestry of colour.’ He has since performed Canto Ostinato and the rest of Van Veen’s music many times and in many countries, and in 2001 he became the founder chair of the Simeon Ten Holt Foundation. His performances, as recognised by critics in publications worldwide, are beautifully recorded and bear the stamp of complete authority in this music.
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