Ten Holt Incantatie IV for Three Pianos Jeroen van Veen

• Simeon ten Holt (1923-2012): Incantatie IV, Pt. I
• 1 Tableau I, Section 1-26 28:33
• 2 Tableau II, Section 27-44 13:08
• 3 Tableau III, Section 45-68 12:27
• 4 Tableau IV, section 69-73 03:53
• Incantatie IV, Pt. II
• 5 Tableau IV, Section 73-139 29:47
• 6 Tableau IV, Section 140-147 07:30
• 7 Tableau V, Section 147-196 18:13
• 8 Tableau VI, Section 197-203 04:07
• 9 Tableau VII, Section 204-213 06:15
• Total Runtime 02:03:53

Info for Ten Holt Incantatie IV for Three Pianos

Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt is widely acclaimed for his ‘Canto Ostinato’, one of the most iconic works of Minimal Music. His ‘Incantatie IV’ is written for 3 pianos, and consists of a complex of 15 layers, whose shifting in both duration, colour and tempo is left to the decision of the performers, thus creating a hybrid between composition and improvisation. According to pianist Jeroen van Veen performing this work is like “looking at the sea: all the time there are changes in colour, radiance, and momentum, never an exact repetition”. Performed by Jeroen and Sandra van Veen and Tamara Rumiantsev, champions of Ten Holt’s music, having performed his music in various environments, such as a train station, a shopping mall (and of course the concert hall…). Dutch minimalist icon Simeon ten Holt, who recently passed away at the age of 89, studied composition with, among others, Honegger and Milhaud. After exploring serialist techniques in the 1960s, he began to focus on more conventional styles of composition from the 70s onwards – concentrating on tone and timbre in particular – and it is from this period (between 1976 and 1998) in Ten Holt’s wide‐ranging career that the Incantatie IV for three pianos dates. Widely famed for his Canto Ostinato, written in five layers, the composer’s Incantatie IV for three pianos stands out for its complexity and is made up of no less than 15 layers for multiple keyboards. Both pieces allow the performers to decide upon the final form of the music, but Incantatie IV leaves much more open; with timbre and pitch, style of play and tempo, number of voices or instruments, and the amount of repetitions all left to the players’ discretion, the length of the composition is undetermined and the piece effectively exists in a grey area between composed and improvised music. One of the artists featured on the recording, Jeroen van Veen, describes the sound world as “if looking at the sea for a long time; the waves, the rays of sunshine and the air all influence the glittering and different colours of the sea”. Jeroen van Veen is one of Brilliant Classics most prolific artists. Chairman of the Simeon ten Holt Foundation (dedicated to keeping Ten Holt’s fascinating music alive) and himself a successful minimalist composer, he is the perfect exponent of this repertoire, championing it on this, his fifth release of the composer’s music. In Incantatie IV for three pianos, Jeroen is joined by his wife and habitual collaborator, Sandra van Veen, as well as Tamara Rumiantsev – herself no stranger to minimalist music, having featured on Brilliant Classics’ Minimal Piano Collection (BC 9171).

Jeroen van Veen, piano
Sandra van Veen, piano
Tamara Rumiantsev, piano

Jeroen Van Veen
born 1969 started playing the piano at the age of 7. He studied at the Utrecht Conservatory with Alwin Bär and Håkon Austbö. In 1993 he passed the Performing Artists' Exam. Van Veen has played with orchestras conducted by Howard Williams, Peter Eötvös, Neal Stulberg and Robert Craft. He has played recitals in Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Russia & the USA. Van Veen attended master classes with Claude Helffer, Hans-Peter & Volker Stenzl and Roberto Szidon. He was invited to several festivals; Reder Piano Festival (1988), Festival der Kunsten in Bad Gleichenberg (1992), Wien Modern (1993), Holland Dance Festival (1998) Lek Art Festival (1996-2007). Van Veen recorded for major Dutch Radio- and Television companies like AVRO, NOS, IKON, NCRV, TROS/Internet, WTBC-TV & Radio (Florida, U.S.A.) and Moscow Television. In 1992, Van Veen recorded his first CD with his brother Maarten as the internationally recognized Piano duo Van Veen. In 1995 Piano duo Van Veen made their debut in the United States. They were prizewinners in the prestigious 4th International Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition in Miami, Florida. After this achievement they toured the United States and Canada many times. The documentary "Two Pianos One Passion" (nominated with an Emmy Award 1996) documents them as a duo.

In 1995 Jeroen Van Veen founded the duo Sandra & Jeroen van Veen, a piano duo with Sandra Mol. As such, they mainly perform (minimal) music for multiple pianos by Erik Satie, Douwe Eisenga, Simeon ten Holt and many more. Beside his career as a solo pianist Van Veen also participates in the following ensembles: ‘Piano Ensemble’, ‘The International Piano Quartet’, ‘Piano Mania’, ‘DJ Piano’ and ‘Jeroen van Veen & Friends’.

The various (>80) compositions by Van Veen may be described as ‘Minimal Music’ with different faces, Crossovers to Jazz, Blues, Soundscape, Avant-Garde, Techno, Trance and Pop Music. Currently Mr. Van Veen is director of Van Veen Productions, Chairman of the Simeon ten Holt Foundation, Culemborg Cultural Foundation, Pianomania Foundation and artistic director of several music festivals in Culemborg, Utrecht and Veldhoven. He is active in Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition based in Miami (USA). Over the last 20 years Van Veen recorded more than 100 CDs for several labels Mirasound, Koch, Naxos, Brilliant Classics, and his own label PIANO. The recording of Les Noces for Koch and Naxos was stated in the New York Times as " the best recording ever". Classics Today on Erik Satie pianoworks four hands, 10 artistic quality, 10 sound quality.

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