Canto Ostinato by Jeroen van Veen
Harmony
A rare six-piano performance of Simeon ten Holt's Canto Ostinato. This version has not been performed since Ten Holt's death.
Ten Holt wrote Canto Ostinato between 1976 and 1979. It is one of the defining works of Dutch contemporary classical music. The piece builds on repeating musical cells that evolve gradually, and the performers decide the length and flow of each section in the moment. Repetition and subtle change shift the listener's sense of time.
Van Veen has been one of the work's most devoted interpreters for more than fifteen years. He has performed Canto Ostinato over 400 times in a wide range of formations, including his lying-down concerts. A close artistic friend of Ten Holt, he has brought the composer's music to audiences around the world and carries it forward to a new generation.
Pianist Jeroen van Veen leads the ensemble, with Sonja Lončar and Andrija Pavlović of LP Duo, Mike del Ferro, Tamara Rumiantsev and Irene Russo.
Harmony is a new form of musical gathering centered around contemporary classical music. Harmony is not a festival, concert, or show. It is an innovative format built entirely around an intensification of listening, supported by a 360-degree visual experience. Across a series of ten music ceremonies, in which the boundaries between classical, ambient, and electronic music blur, this project brings together artists who work with sound and space with great precision and subtlety.