Canadian guitarist Tim Beattie performs Habanera from Twee stukken voor gitaar, Op.22 (1944) by Dutch composer Marius Flothuis (1914-2001) at the Royal Conservatory, Koerner Hall in Toronto, Canada. This comes via Beattie’s YouTube channel and Riddle Films. Flothuis is a major composer and, to my knowledge only composed these two works for guitar. Great performance by Beattie with a clean and rhythmic delivery and lots of crisp articulation. He mentioned this in his description:
Marius Flothuis’ works for guitar are rarely (if ever) heard. As an active member of the Resistance, he had several Jewish refugees permanently hiding in his home before being betrayed and ultimately deported to Camp Vught. In spite of degrading conditions while in captivity, he was still able to compose, and among those compositions written during this period are his ‘Twee Stukken’ for solo guitar. The pieces demonstrate a characteristically tasteful balance of familiar forms and phrase structures, thoroughgoing melody, and deep expressive possibilities. The pieces are almost on the edges of themselves; as twisted, forlorn remembrances of a Folia and Habanera, rendered here in a bleaker ‘now’. I want to express my deepest thanks to Lex Eisenhardt for bringing this wonderful music to my attention all those years ago at the Amsterdam Conservatory. Thanks as well to the Donemus Foundation for their generous support of my ongoing efforts to bring Flothuis’ guitar music to light.
Beattie’s YouTube
