SYNOPSIS

Canto Ostinato can rightly be called one of the most beautiful compositions ever written by a Dutch composer. His name was Simeon ten Holt, a composer who lived most of his life in his native village of Bergen, where he died in 2012.

The Canto is, of course, his most famous work, but he wrote so much more. Consider his 4 Soloduiveldansen and Incantatie IV. In Hegeman’s new documentary, De eeuw van Simeon ten Holt (The Century of Simeon ten Holt), these pieces also receive the attention they deserve in beautiful performances by Hannes Minnaar, the Natalon Quartet and the Amstel Sax Quartet. But a film about ten Holt would obviously not be complete without the beautiful Canto, performed here by the Oer Ensemble, the original formation that gave the very first performance of the piece 40 years ago and now proves in a brilliant recent performance how timeless ten Holt’s music is. The sparkling performance by the young piano duo Scholtes and Janssens is further confirmation of this. Pianist Kees Wieringa acts as a musical guide, explaining, alongside the stories of the other musicians, what makes Canto so virtuosic and what it was like to work with Simeon ten Holt for decades.

In addition to the music, the film also focuses on Simeon ten Holt as a person. Who was he really? How did he live? What were his motivations and obsessions? The women in his life are given a chance to speak about this, each highlighting a different aspect of his character. With his second wife, Noeki Schmidt, we visit Simeon’s birthplace and the place where they lived together. His daughter Marijn shows us around the Bunker where he was forced to live in times of poverty and scarcity. Marijn, who is a photographer, provides rare photographic material that perfectly illustrates that bizarre period. With his widow Colette Noël, we end up in the fairytale cottage on Loudelsweg where she and Simeon lived together for quite some time. And all this against the backdrop of the natural beauty of Bergen, which inspired Simeon so intensely.

A treasure of archive material further contributes to bringing Simeon ten Holt back to life in the documentary.

CAST

KEES WIERINGA

COLETTE NOEL

MARIJN TEN HOLT

NOEKI SCHMID

HANNES MINNAAR

NATALON KWARTET 

AMSTEL QUARTET

ARIELLE VERNÈDE

GERARD BOUWHUIS

CEES VAN ZEELAND

GENE CARL

LESTARI SCHOLTES

GWYLIM JANSSENS