About This Item
The Dutch composer Douwe Eisenga writes post-minimal music that is accessible without becoming superficial. Better evidence of this than the CD Rose Road-City Lines, is scarcely conceivable. Time and again he creates a modern, irresistible groove with classical instruments. This emerges strongly in the impressive Piano Concerto, the mesmerizing City Lines and the sparkling string quartet Rose Road. Colorful and sublime. Press Quotes NRC 'showy proportions' The minimalistic Piano Concerto, with pianist Gerard Bouwhuis as nonchalant pioneer, takes on showy proportions now and then through the use of heroic brass players. The string quartet Rose Road, with somber counterpoint and sharp counterrhythms, is splendidly played by the Francis B. Quartet. City Lines babbles on in extreme respectability. VOLKSKRANT ?'playful inventivity'?The DNA of Eisenga's work bears a likeness to the pepped-up locomotion of Aaron Copland and the benign minimalia of the Flemish composer Wim Mertens. Philip Glass is also family, but Eisenga's Pianoconcert, with it's tumbling notes and wheedling clarinets, has a playful inventivity usually lacking in Glass' fill-in-the-blanks exercises. (Four out of five stars) TROUW ?'colorful and sublime' The Xenakis Ensemble performed Eisenga's Piano Concerto in Japan, but in his own country his name has not been universally recognized. That will change with the CD 'Rose Roads - City Lines.' Eisenga has found his own sound within the restricted latitude of minimalism. Perhaps 'City Lines' is most reminiscent of the sensual composer Simeon ten Holt. The performance of Eisenga's tenderly sweet melodiousness by the Francis B. Quartet and pianist Gerard Bouwhuis is colorful and sublime. PZC ?'irresistible groove, mesmerizing' Douwe Eisenga's work is accessible without becoming superficial. Better evidence of this than his new CD, Rose Road-City Lines, is scarcel
