Jeroen van Veen – The Best of Minimal Piano Music (2020) [FLAC 24bit/48kHz]

Highlights from the award-winning, much-praised series of Brilliant Classics recordings by today’s leading champion of minimalist piano repertoire.

The journey towards simplicity so comprehensively charted by Jeroen van Veen’s discography over the past decade begins chronologically with the unique world of Erik Satie. In the quietly unique music of this ever-underrated pioneer lies the seeds of so much that was to come to fruition in the latter half of the last turbulent century. Satie belonged neither to the Impressionists nor the Modernists nor any other school, and it took John Cage and the New York modernists of the 1950s to rediscover him as more than a provocateur or a purveyor of salon trifles.

Yet, at much the same time on the other side of the Iron Curtain, Soviet-era composers were starting to chafe against both the tenets of serialism and also the requirements of the State for neo-Romantic hymns to labour and triumph. Arvo Pärt was reaching for the same destination as the American triumvirate of Adams, Glass and Reich, only from the other end of the stylistic spectrum. The English critic and composer Michael Nyman first used the term ‘Minimalism’ in print, and it stuck. The last 40 years have witnessed an explosion of popularity and wider interest in a world of music that transcends the four-bar sequences and relentless rhythms of pop, while forsaking the ivory tower of modernism, to offer music that speaks to listeners in search of quiet and stillness, music to meditate by as well as music to stir the blood.

And for the last 15 years Jeroen van Veen has recorded much of it in his home studio in the Netherlands, as well as achieving great popular success with performances much farther afield. His recordings have been acclaimed for their nuances of touch as well as their technical command of music demanding formidable reserves of precision and patience. The present collection also includes several new recordings, of Simeon ten Holt and the latest album by Lodovico Einaudi, which sold out houses around the world when the composer toured it last year. This indispensable digest of minimalist piano is the perfect starting point for a new listener but it also holds considerable attractions for seasoned collectors.

Without doubt Jeroen van Veen established himself as “The leading exponent of minimalism today” (Fanfare), “Jeroen van Veen has been a powerhouse in the piano world” (Musicweb). His numerous recordings for Brilliant Classics include works by Glass, Reich, Ten Holt, Pärt, Satie, Tiersen, Einaudi, Preisner and many others.
Based on his vast experience and all-encompassing repertoire Jeroen van Veen himself selected the best, most appealing and representative works, to form “The Best of Minimal Piano Music”: works by Philip Glass, Simeon ten Holt (Canto Ostinato!), John Adams, Jacob ter Veldhuis, Yann Tiersen, Michael Nyman, Arvo Pärt, Ryūichi Sakamoto, Erik Satie and Jeroen van Veen (yes, he is a composer is well), music suitable for multiple purposes: relaxing, working-out, background sound, meditation.

Tracklist:
1. Jeroen van Veen – Opening from Glassworks (08:54)
2. Jeroen van Veen – Metamorphosis, Pt. I (07:00)
3. Jeroen van Veen – Metamorphosis, Pt. II (06:55)
4. Jeroen van Veen – Metamorphosis, Pt. III (04:22)
5. Jeroen van Veen – Metamorphosis, Pt. IV (05:52)
6. Jeroen van Veen – Metamorphosis, Pt. V (06:06)
7. Jeroen van Veen – Mad Rush (15:12)
8. Jeroen van Veen – The Hours (07:13)
9. Jeroen van Veen – Modern Love Waltz (04:57)
10. Jeroen van Veen – Truman Show (02:10)
11. Jeroen van Veen – Etude XI in C Minor (08:29)
12. Jeroen van Veen – China Gates (05:54)
13. Jeroen van Veen – Phrygian Gates (28:14)
14. Jeroen van Veen – Aforisme, Pt. II (04:19)
15. Jeroen van Veen – Canto Ostinato, 1st Edition (25:38)
16. Jeroen van Veen – The Body of Your Dreams (08:40)
17. Jeroen van Veen – On & Off Situation Blues (01:53)
18. Jeroen van Veen – Sound (01:06)
19. Jeroen van Veen – Comptine d’un autre été, l’après-Midi (02:30)
20. Jeroen van Veen – Le moulin (03:34)
21. Jeroen van Veen – La dispute (02:13)
22. Jeroen van Veen – Sur le fil (05:09)
23. Jeroen van Veen – La valse d’amelie (02:35)
24. Jeroen van Veen – Big my Secret (03:57)
25. Jeroen van Veen – Lost and Found (03:12)
26. Jeroen van Veen – The Heart Asks Pleasure First (04:18)
27. Jeroen van Veen – Für Alina (18:44)
28. Jeroen van Veen – Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka (05:56)
29. Jeroen van Veen – Fratres (11:44)
30. Jeroen van Veen – Spiegel im Spiegel (09:10)
31. Carel Kraayenhof – Bibo no aozora (06:36)
32. Jeroen van Veen – Gymnopédie I (04:46)
33. Jeroen van Veen – Gnossiennes I (05:27)
34. Jeroen van Veen – Gnossiennes II (02:46)
35. Jeroen van Veen – Gnossiennes III (04:05)
36. Jeroen van Veen – Gnossiennes IV (04:03)
37. Jeroen van Veen – Minimal Prelude (07:40)
38. Jeroen van Veen – Minimal Prelude 18, Lego (09:33)
39. Jeroen van Veen – Minimal Prelude 15 (02:42)
40. Jeroen van Veen – Minimal Prelude 23 (07:02)
41. Jeroen van Veen – Minimal Prelude 48 (08:55)
42. Jeroen van Veen – Minimal Prelude 50 (06:26)
43. Jeroen van Veen – Minimal Prelude 61 (06:39)
44. Jeroen van Veen – Piano Concerto, II Movement (08:46)
45. Jeroen van Veen – River Flows in You (03:30)
46. Jeroen van Veen – May Be (03:53)
47. Jeroen van Veen – Kiss the Rain (03:52)
48. Jeroen van Veen – Yellow Room (03:49)
49. Jeroen van Veen – Destiny of Love (03:56)
50. Jeroen van Veen – To See More (04:34)
51. Jeroen van Veen – The Art of Flying (04:18)
52. Jeroen van Veen – A Good Morning Melody (05:19)
53. Jeroen van Veen – A Tune a Day (04:56)
54. Jeroen van Veen – Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (04:31)
55. Jeroen van Veen – The Sheltering Sky (05:12)
56. Jeroen van Veen – Seven Samurai – Ending Theme (05:40)
57. Jeroen van Veen – The Last Emperor II (05:44)
58. Jeroen van Veen – Thousand Knives (05:56)
59. Jeroen van Veen – Andras (04:30)
60. Jeroen van Veen – H for New England (01:56)
61. Jeroen van Veen – The Family (02:41)
62. Jeroen van Veen – Written on the Sky II (05:18)
63. Jeroen van Veen – Una Mattina, Long Version (09:05)
64. Jeroen van Veen – Le onde (04:47)
65. Jeroen van Veen – I giorni (06:52)
66. Jeroen van Veen – Primavera (07:36)
67. Jeroen van Veen – Nuvuole bianche (06:33)
68. Jeroen van Veen – Passaggio (05:23)
69. Jeroen van Veen – Seven Days Walking: I. Gravity (06:37)
70. Jeroen van Veen – Seven Days Walking: II. A Sense of Symmetry (02:31)
71. Jeroen van Veen – Seven Days Walking: III. Cold Wind (08:43)
72. Jeroen van Veen – Seven Days Walking: IV. Low Mist (06:35)
73. Jeroen van Veen – Seven Days Walking: V. The Path of the Fossils (10:05)
74. Jeroen van Veen – Seven Days Walking: VI. The Tower (03:48)