Review – Smits Réves and Ten Duo’s

Since the publication of Five Light Pieces in 2008, Reitze Smits has steadily developed his oeuvre, consisting mainly of works for organ solo and four hands, alongside works for other instrumental combinations and for choir. The idiom is fundamentally always recognisable: consonant or mildly dissonant, based on diatonicism, repetitions, quasi-improvisatory “playing” with the tonal material, and a predominantly static, phased structure. Some meditative and atmospheric pieces such as Canto Baltica were conceived as a response to the popular music often labelled ‘neoclassical’, such as that of Einaudi (Reitze: “The boom in ‘soothing piano music’, which is often monotonously soporific”). By choosing the organ (and a more interesting working method, that is to say: less predictable), the composer attempts in similarly calming works to present a different sound.