Achim Breiling <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Recently I picked up a CD on the Donemus label by one Dutch Hans
>Kox featuring his 3 violin concertos played by the Netherlands Chamber
>Orchestra.  What surprisingly great music!  These works - written in 1965,
>1978 and 1993, respectively - are certainly worth to give a listen and
>those of you who can live with the concertos of Bartok, Berg or Schoenberg
>might like also these!

Thank you for the tip, I shall certainly order it!

I shall also try to search the Donemus archives when I go to Amsterdam, but
it would be interesting to watch for a release of the symphonies (the first
one dates back to his most neo-classical years, the second one already
belongs to the phase of affirmation with such works as the Cyclophonies,
and the third is a large-scale work based on Isaiah) and the Cyclophonies.
Kox is described by dictionaries as one of the finest Dutch composers, in
a traditional style.  Actually, even Peter Schat, once a leading exponent
of Dutch and European avantgarde, has elements of neo-Romanticism in his
latr works.  I once heard his Houdini symphony (based on the polymorphic
"opera" with the same name) and it was surprisingly refined and attractive.

Speaking of Donemus, I must have mentioned the Vermeulen cycle.  I think
that his symphonies and some of the chamber works deserve to be heard, it
really sounds like nobody else.

Best wishes,

Thanh-Tam Le
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