Here is a link to the review of Rozalie Hirs’ first CD Platonic ID (2007), performed by ASKO|Schönberg. Originally written for the Journal Listen, the review can now be read online on Opus Klassiek. Riedstra writes:
“In my review of Ladder of Escape 16 (Wiek Hijmans’ electric guitar), I came across a work by Rozalie Hirs: article 6 [waves]. I remembered an earlier CD, with a number of works also titled article, and found a review from over a decade ago. The CD is still available, so may the same be true for the review. article is not a commodity with Hirs, of course, but an article. To which Hirs adds the reassuring statement that it can also be an article in the sense of an essay. That brings us closer to the essence of this philosophically inclined sound seeker. She expressed her quest as follows: ‘Shall I tell you what my ideal would be? That I learn to write a kind of music that enters into a dialogue with the physical and psychological processes in the brain. A music of the senses, which communicates with the listener. Ideally, with my music, I try to give the listener an experience they have not yet had.’
On the CD in question we find article number 0 for percussion, numbers 1 to 3 for piano and number 4 for violin solo. The remaining articles were written for soprano (5), electric guitar (6, listenable on Ladder of Escape 16), bass clarinet (7, listenable on Ladder of Escape 11, and flute (8). Here is my 2007 review of the CD Platonic ID:
Rozalie Hirs (b. 1965) not only composes, she is also successful as a poet. From such a person you would expect a combination of both disciplines, and there are many examples of this in her work, as evidenced by her extremely informative website. On this CD, however, we find only instrumental works, headed by the 18-minute Platonic ID for 13 instrumentalists. Hirs studied at the Hague Conservatory, but she is not an adept of the New Hague School. This is due to the fact that she subsequently studied at Columbia University in the U.S. with French composer Tristan Murail. Along with Gérard Grisey and Claude Vivier, Murail belongs to the so-called spectral composers, a direction concerned with the boning of a single sound into its overtones. It is also interesting to note that Hirs first completed a course in chemical engineering before devoting herself to the muses. Influenced by this, her music is undoubtedly rigorously organized, though as a listener you need not concern yourself with that. What we get to hear is hard to describe, but if we combine the straightforward attitude of the Hague School with the spectralists’ sense of color we come somewhat close. The works are written to suit the performers, and that’s how they sound. Another feather in the cap of Sieuwert Verster’s one-man label Attacca. Praise.”