{"product_id":"ten-holt-meandres","title":"Holt: Meandres","description":"A mesmerising piano cycle by the master  of Dutch minimalism.  'I write music like this not because I'm  isolated,' Simeon Ten Holt once said. 'I'm  isolated because I write music like this.'  And yet, since his death in 2012,  performances and recordings of his music  have multiplied like one of his motivic  cells, gathering energy and momentum to  spread the reputation of a composer who  took the rhythmic precepts of American  minimalists such as Reich and Glass, and  coloured them with a European-Romantic  glow of harmony.  Composed in 1995-97 for four pianos,  Meandres is another monumental yet  approachable piano cycle in the mould of  his celebrated Canto Ostinato, more  complex and more chromatic than the  earlier cycle but sharing with it a hypnotic  clarity and an improvisatory freedom which  leaves a good deal of liberty to the  performers. At first, there is no melody, in  the usual sense of the word. However, over  time, a pattern emerges like a puzzle taking  shape before the listener.  The title refers to the meandering course of  rivers, which takes them to mountain slopes  as well as lowlands. 'Because it is like a  work in progress which never reaches  closure,' remarks the composer, 'the  meandering structure of the piece is quite  demanding on the performers. It is the  condensation of an inquiry into the very  limits of time and space.'  This recording of Meandres was made in 1999  by a team of Dutch pianists who had all worked  with Ten Holt on his music, and accordingly it  vibrates with disciplined authenticity. Sharp  accents continually break and articulate the line  and the restatement of the germinal motif, but  it always loops back to a cadence which Robert  Schumann would have recognised. Combining  Baroque rigour with early-Romantic harmony  and late-20th-century form, Meandres is both  post-modern and timeless as an extension of  piano literature.","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":48594044485912,"sku":"5028421970059","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/4335059-3177825.jpg?v=1777515438","url":"https:\/\/hbdirect.com\/products\/ten-holt-meandres","provider":"HBDirect","version":"1.0","type":"link"}