FEICO SOLO is a collection of piano music released worldwide March 2nd 2018 by Zefir Records. It covers a wide range of contemporary composers from Philip Glass, John Adams, David Lang and Arvo Pӓrt to Max Richter, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Nils Frahm, including both well-known and newer pieces.
The album was recorded on a Steinway D piano and beautifully engineered by Jakko van der Heijden. It features the famous acoustics of the Zeeuwse Concertzaal in Middelburg, The Netherlands. One of the album highlights is the world premiere recording of Philip Glass's Mishima Sonata for piano. This is an arrangement that Feico made with permission of the composer of 3 movements from the world famous film score Philip Glass made of the movie Mishima and which is generally considered to belong to his strongest music.
Other works by Philip Glass on the album are Opening, Theme from Candyman and Etude No. 12. The album also includes well-known 'minimalist' classics such as China Gates by John Adams, Für Alina by Arvo Pӓrt and Wed by David Lang. It also features lesser known music by Ryuichi Sakamoto Opus and Energy Flow, as well as a new piece from Douwe Eisenga titled For Mattia.
A number of tracks are from younger neo-classical composers such as Hammers and Went Missing by Nils Frahm, The Blue Notebooks and Written on the Sky by Max Richter and Together We Will Live Forever by Clint Mansell.
''The music at times is relentless and dreamily reflective, and Deutekom imbues the slowly shifting harmonies and tender melodic lines with organic fluency. (...) What ultimately makes ‘Feico Solo’ so alluring is the pianist’s total commitment to the nuanced writing in each work. (…) Deutekom honours them all.’’ Grammophone.co.uk
... 'Een waardevolle solo-cd. (...) Het resultaat is een mooie rode draad, van Opening van Glass uit 1982 naar het huidige veld van repetitieve muziek en, belangrijker, een cd die door het strakke en suggestieve spel van Deutekom een plezier is en blijft om naar te luisteren.' Klassieke Zaken
'Opvallend de keuze van de stukken, muziek van weliswaar bekende componisten maar die anders weinig te horen is. Ook interessant zijn de verschillende stijlen (...). Deutekom weet op voortreffelijke wijze de complexiteit van deze muziek over te brengen.' Jan Jasper - Platomania
'What captivates the listener on these recordings is a sense of ambience, an evocation of space. Feico Deutekom breathes life and shape into these works, many of which have a delicately melancholy tone. He is able to convey both the rhythmic complexity and the panoramic quality of this music, where silence and the spaces lingering between the notes are often as important as the notes themselves.' Amazon.com
Thanks, Feico, for doing such a great job on my piece 'wed' - it is played so sensitively. And thanks for putting my music in such great company - it is a really beautiful recording. David Lang
Feico's love for For Mattia turns out not to be an one-night stand. His interpretation is lyrical and subdued at the same time and I am grateful that the piece spreads across the world in this beautiful way. Douwe Eisenga