Gabriel Fernández : flute
Wim Hoogewerf : guitar
Lisa Kokwenda Schweiger : harpsichord
Mariana Preda : pan-flute
Ensamble Rosario directed by Marisol Gentile
The Dutch guitarist and composer Kees Arntzen (born in 1957) presents his album « …dejar abajo… », including ten recent compositions.
A few words from the composer :
« Under the title For Your Ears Only I was allowed to visit Rosario, Argentina, in the summer of 2019 to give a brief introduction to a topic that has occupied me for some time: hidden messages in music. Like Rembrandt and Hitchcock, many composers could not resist the temptation to let themselves or a loved one appear secretly in their creations. Many of the compositions collected on this CD also contain such ‘chiffres’ in the form of quotes, references or even outpourings.
The pièce de resistance is « … dejar abajo… » a double concerto for flute and guitar that refers to the forced abandonment of a city and a loved one. Among other alpine songs, it quotes Heinrich Isaac’s famous song Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen. In the partita ‘Wereldwijven’ for harpsichord I try to paint the musical portraits of special women from different continents: my beloved Jo-Anne Kobald, the combative musician Marisol Gentile, my classmate Magda Wisch, who died much too early, and the Persian-German guitarist Negin Habibi.
Each of the four miniatures is based on the principle of the soggetto cavato in which letters of a name are converted into notes and thus a guiding theme. The addition cum figuris of course refers to the novel Dr. Faustus by Thomas Mann in which this principle also forms an important part of the narration. The demanding composition Disfraz was finally able to premiere in its entirety thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of the great Romanian pan-flutist Mariana Preda.
Of course my greatest thanks goes to my colleague and friend Wim Hoogewerf, without whose truly limitless commitment this album could never have been realized. Having his unwavering interest in microtonal music in mind I composed especially for him Norwegian Mood – seven quarter tone variations on a Norwegian melody for a guitar with three detuned strings. »
Kees Arntzen
Composer website : www.keesarntzen.nl
Editor : Donemus, www.donemus.nl
Photo : Kees Arntzen with Fernando Linares-Correa, bariton
