Katsu evokes a world of sound and silence. Klaas de Vries explores resonance and inner silence; at the heart of the work, the musicians speak about the significance of music.
Concert notes · Arno Bornkamp
Klaas de Vries (1944) is the ‘eminence grise’ of Dutch composers and belongs to the ‘golden generation’ alongside Louis Andriessen, Tristan Keuris and Peter-Jan Wagemans. “KATSU” (Japanese for victory) evokes a world of sound and silence. De Vries is particularly interested in resonance as a metaphor for what a composer leaves behind for eternity, in a search for inner silence.
The musical material generally consists of parallel lines in the saxophones, chords in the piano and many moments of rest.
In “KATSU”, the composer also refers to the broader appreciation of music’s significance for people, which seems so often to be under pressure today. At the heart of the composition, De Vries has the musicians recite the following text:
“Music might be a waste of time, but we have to acknowledge it has great power over our bodies and over our minds. It can make us dance and it can make us cry. Music has power over what makes us most human: our sorrows, our joys, our memories, our hopes, our dreams. If our mind is a labyrinth, there is hope because a labyrinth always has a way out. To find the way out takes time. Time is much too precious not to be wasted. We have to waste time! It is compulsory!!”
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