About this Artist

Born: 1912, AmsterdamDied: 1980, De Koog, Texel (Netherlands)

“The technique of a composer is intimately related to his spiritual and intellectual self, his psyche.”

Escher studied piano and composition at the Rotterdam Conservatory, and most of his early scores were destroyed when the city was bombed by the Germans in 1940. After the war he lived in Amsterdam, taught at the University of Utrecht, and won most of the prominent Dutch prizes for music. He wrote poetry as well as music criticism and was also a talented painter. Although he lived in Java for five years as a child and later experimented with serialism and electronic music, his music remained basically tonal, influenced mainly by Ravel and Debussy.

Further listening:Sonata for Solo Flute (1949) Wout van den Berg (Etcetera Records)

Complete Piano Works(Sonata No. 1, Arcana, etc.)Sepp Grothenhuis (Ottava Recordings)