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#536 — Piano 2 — Canto Ostinato

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Program 536
Canto Ostinato by Simeon Ten Holt / Kees Wieringa and Polo de Haas
Broadcast

The feature tonight is an uninterrupted broadcast of the iconic work composed in 1976 for multiple pianos by Dutch composer Simeon Ten Holt (1923-2012).  It's engrossing not only for its mesmerising repetitive quintuplets and gentle shifting light melodies, but also because the performers have substantial license to choose which of the 106 sections to play. This means that a performance can vary in length enormously.

Thanks to broadcaster Gerry Koster who's been a champion of this work for many years, I first heard a 3 hour version for 4 pianos on PBS-FM in Melbourne back in the 1990s, when it garnered a really positive reaction from the listeners, not only for the work itself, but as a broadcast event.  I really hope you can settle in a peaceful place and embrace this amazing composition.

Canto Ostinato - score

Playlist

ARTIST
Title  [Dur.]
Album  (Year)

Marcin WASILEWSKI TRIO
Riders On The Storm [5:43]
En attendant (2021)

Anouar BRAHEM
Toi Qui Sait (You that knows) [6:03]
Le pas du chat noir (2002)

Kees WIERINGA and Polo de HAAS
Canto Ostinato (for 2 pianos)  [75:29]
Canto Ostinato by Simeon Ten HOLT (1996)

PRIVATE SPACE MATERIAL
Letting Go [9:45]
Music to Bath By (1988)

Monique DIMATTINA
Angelina [4:56]
Tides (2021)

Nils FRAHM
Ode [4:35]
Solo (2015)

Theme: Garry Havrillay — Fragments of Memory (edit) — Aurora (2018)