RODERIK DE MAN: Past & Present Tracks (2012)
This double CD album features a fine selection of compositions written between 1991 and 2011, performed by Jorge Isaac, Black Pencil ,Duo MARES, Harry Spaarnay, Nieuw Sinfonietta, Osiris Trio, Roentgen Connection, Esra Pehlivanli, Matthijs Koene, Michael Bonaventure, Reinhold Westerheide, Fanny Alofs, Anahi Oraison, Chiel van Hofwegen and Annelie de Man, among other distinguished artists.
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“This double CD is dedicated to my wife Annelie de Man, the love of my life and excellent musician, who passed away in 2010”.
Roderik de Man (1941) has a profound understanding for and love of musical instruments and a deep appreciation for the performer’s world. He plays several instruments himself, aside from percussion, and has built up a collection of them, including quite rare examples. When he is composing a new work for guitar, you will fi nd a borrowed instrument leaning against the wall of his studio, so that he can try out possibilities for himself. This handson approach to music not only refl ects a fascination with the nuts and bolts of the art, but also reflects the very practical and self-reliant nature of the man. But his practicality extends even further - once, after writing a gigantic “impossible” chord for piano, he took great pleasure in designing and building the wooden device needed to execute it.
Roderik de Man is equally concerned with the musical potential of the human voice. It is also remarkable how often he combines instruments and/or vocal sound with electronics. Referring to this, he speaks of his music as somehow existing “on the borderlines”. But, by this, he also refers to the way it exists between classical and non-classical genres.
His aim is to combine the best from diverse musical territories, and perhaps there you
see again something of the man behind the music, for he is an enthusiastic traveller, both England and Indonesia being virtually second homes to him.
One of the main trends in De Man’s music has been to arrive at a realistic sort of innovation and virtuosity through close collaboration with certain chosen performers.
He is drawn to musicians who are not just virtuosi but who gladly accept the challenge of investing the time and effort necessary to realise the sometimes extreme demands
posed by contemporary music. There have been many such collaborations throughout his composing career, and the most remarkable of these was with his late wife, the
harpsichordist Annelie de Man. This CD is dedicated to her, and she was the chief inspiration among that select group of performers the composer turned to again and again.
Geoffrey King