I wanted to try just once more and see what happened
“I wanted to try just once more and see what happened,’ writes composer Robert Nasveld (1955) in the notes for his new CDHanging Around. This appears to be the motto for the whole CD, which testifies to a carefree passion for experiment. Nasveld’s compositions are usually ‘nothing out of the ordinary’ tonal, without trying to be ground-breaking, except for the isolated use of a harmonic or muted notes in Three pieces for piano (2002). Dream Leaves (2008), short, Schumann-like character-pieces for piano four hands, are conspicuous for their brilliance. In Dream of the girl at the spinning-wheel, one hears the turning of the spinning-wheel, Dream of the beloved who cannot agree is full of jerks and hesitations. But Nasveld can take a different track: listen to the French sensuality of Les traits du ciel, part of Trois Chansons (2001), beautifully sung by baritone Mattijs van de Woerd. Often the music has a swing, owing to Nasveld’s use of regular repeated rhythmic and/or melodic motives. This enables him to rub against the blues style without really touching it (Frozen Blues, 2003). Even when things could theoretically become serious, for example in Six Cavafy songs (2009), a song cycle using the poetry of Greek poet Kavafis, the tone remains springlike and sparking”.
Jochem Valkenburg, NRC February 2, 2011
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Pianist Robert Nasveld is a tightrope-walker whose chords unravel to become tones fluttering past each other.
“Pianist Robert Nasveld is a tightrope-walker whose chords unravel to become tones fluttering past each other. The sonority of the piano is a leitmotiv in the work of Robert Nasveld (1955), which is small wonder since he is a pianist himself. Fingers on the string, harmonics, lovely pedal effects, he exploits them systematically and with zeal. Many compositions on this CD are series of short pieces, such as Dream Leaves, a four-handed homage to Schumann, in which the music constantly vacillates between quasi-romanticism and deconstruction. Nasveld is a tightrope-walker who likes to explore the interaction of tones, notably in the piano trio Hanging around in which chords become single notes fluttering past each other. The performances, by various musicians, are of high quality. In Six Cavafy Songs, the most recent work, the palette of sounds blossoms into fifteen instruments, and baritone Olle Persson reveals that Nasveld is also a master of lyrical lines”.
Frits van der Waa, De Volkskrant, March 22, 2011
Hanging around, Albumblätter and other works.
….Pianist and composer Robert Nasveld is an outsider; as radio producer and indefatigable advocate of American composer George Crumb he is a man of significance. While listening to Hanging Around, named for Nasveld’s piano trio, I was especially struck by the piano pieces on this remarkable CD.
Nasveld is unmistakably indebted to his great idol, whose love of subtle and mysterious piano sounds he has adopted. InTraumblätter (2007), eight masterly miniatures for the four hands of piano duo Wyneke Jordans and Leo van Doeselaar, Three pieces for piano and in Frozen blues, played by Nasveld himself, one surprise follows another. Hanging Around, the piano trio, has that same quality. The other (vocal) numbers I found less convincing.
Hans Heg, Klassiekezaken.nl, April 2011