Holt: A Book of Colours

Featuring

Rolf Hind
Simon Holt

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Recording & Production

This album was recorded on July 27-28, 2008, at Potton Hall in Suffolk, with David Lefeber as engineer and producer.

Composition History

Black Lanterns and Nigredo, two pieces on this album, were revised in 2004 and written as tributes to composers Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies, respectively, who supported Simon Holt early in his career.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Simon Holt's music is often inspired by extra-musical elements, particularly from the visual arts and literature, which have been as significant as purely musical influences.

Composer Biography

Simon Holt, the composer of this album's music, studied composition with Anthony Gilbert at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Performer Biography

Rolf Hind, the pianist on this album, has worked closely with many living composers, including John Adams, Tan Dun, Ligeti, Lachenmann, and George Benjamin.

Composition History

The earliest work on this album, Tauromaquia, was inspired by Goya's 1815 series of bullfighting studies of the same name, particularly one depicting the death of José Delgado.

Composition History

Klop's Last Bite, a sequence of ten short pieces on this album, was inspired by a press article about Peter Ustinov that mentioned his father, a WWII spy codenamed Klop (Russian for bedbug).