{"product_id":"tejas","title":"TEJAS","description":"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan class=\"COMPOSER12\"\u003eHENDRICKX \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003eTejas. Skriet. Le visioni di paura. \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12b\"\u003eVariations \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"BULLET12\"\u003e • \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e Martyn Brabbins, cond; Royal Flemish P \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"BULLET12\"\u003e • \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e CUTTING EDGE RFP 003 (67: 32) \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eI wasted a Tom Stoppard line (“when Belgium produces a composer”) in a recent review; it really belongs here. Wim Hendrickx (b.1962) studied composition (with Willem Kersters) and percussion at the Antwerp Conservatory; he teaches there and in Amsterdam. His music is best described as abstract expressionist, and the link to the visual arts is appropriate: \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eTejas\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e, a 37-minute orchestral work written in 2009, is subtitled “What Does the Sound of the Universe Look Like?” This is hard-driving, powerful music, crammed with events and yet a most convincing whole. The music ranges from comfortable to wildly dissonant; there is no suggestion of atonality, nor are there easily identifiable key relationships. The composer’s study of percussion may be recognized by his employment of a large variety of drums, which become almost a concertante element. It opens with the Big Bang—one crashing \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003efortissimo\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e chord followed by strings and woodwinds skittering towards silence, a welcome change from Peter Ruzicka’s opening 30 seconds of super \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003epianissimo\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e, about which I complained in \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eFanfare\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e 35:5. Hendrickx’s chord suggests the “Eroica,” and \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eTejas\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e continues to make subtle connections to the past, especially to \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eLe Sacre du printemps\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e (which—on its 99th birthday—we must salute as the most influential single work ever created, possibly in all the arts). But at one point drums quietly tap out the da-da-da-dum of Beethoven’s Fifth. None of this is blatant, nor is a general orchestral feeling of Mahler: the giant climaxes, 99 players sitting mute as one or two noodle along, contrasts of darkness and blazing light. I have tried to describe what I hear; after reading the composer’s notes, I learn that \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eTejas\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e is a Sanskrit word and that the music has connections to Tantric philosophy. I have often found composers’ notes to be at odds with my own perceptions (and preferred to go my own way), but they should mean more to you than my ravings, so you deserve to be told. \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eTejas\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e is presented on a single track with 11 index numbers; no doubt they indicate sections of the work, but as yet I have not been able to parse them; to me, this is one vast, unbroken stretch of music. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eThe three other Hendrickx works on this disc are short pieces, from five to 13 minutes long, composed between 1988 and 2003 (the cover says “\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eTejas\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e and other orchestral works”). Heard following \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eTejas\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e, they strike one as preparatory work for the \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003epièce de resistance\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e, but of course they weren’t written as such. They are all recognizable as the same composer (a point he makes in his notes, too); after one thoroughly digests \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eTejas\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e, they may reveal their individual characters. The performances and the recorded sound (in Queen Elisabeth Hall, Antwerp, on June 23–25, 2010) do justice to the local composer; the booklet is mum on whether or not he attended or supervised. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eWhat matters is that I find \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eTejas\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e exciting and absorbing, ever more so over multiple hearings. I can’t remember being so taken by a new piece since Osvaldo Golijov’s \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eAinadamar\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e (which I continue to regard as the awakening of a new century of music). Don’t miss this one! \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-weight:bold\"\u003eFANFARE: James H. North \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Royal Flemish","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":49704862712088,"sku":"5425008377872","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/1963421.jpg?v=1777934809","url":"https:\/\/hbdirect.com\/products\/tejas","provider":"HBDirect","version":"1.0","type":"link"}