Douwe Eisenga’s ‘For Mattia’ is highly ranked in Radio 4’s Classical Top 400, with listeners saying it is the most beautiful composition ever. During the Piano Nights on 18 May, Eisenga will play his own work. That same evening, Hannes Minnaar will perform Bach’s Goldberg Variations. An introduction to the composer from Middelburg.

‘Quite exciting’, is how Eisenga describes his performance during the Piano Nights over the phone. A slight cough reveals that he is recovering from corona. ‘As a composer I lead a fairly isolated existence. So I was surprised to get it. Despite all the shots and boosters. But we’ll recover, you know.’

That is just as well, because in the coming time he will prepare himself for the concert in the Concertgebouw. Eisenga will be making his debut there. Exciting therefore, ‘but also honourable’, he says from his home in Middelburg. The Concertgebouw is, of course, the hall of the Netherlands. It has a certain status. In 2010, a piece of mine was premiered there, performed by the Utrecht Student Choir and Orchestra, on a text by Herman van Veen. I had never played there before.

Solo, Eisenga plays a selection from his two latest piano albums: For Mattia and Open. The first title is derived from a very special commission. ‘In 2016 I was approached by Mattia’s parents with the question of whether I would like to compose something for their daughter who had died by suicide the year before. I had resolved to make the most beautiful piano music on earth. Well, if you want to block yourself out as a composer, then you should set yourself such an ambition. I spent three and a half weeks looking for material. But then the piece was on paper in about four days.’

‘For Mattia has gained enormous wings. On Spotify, every three minutes someone puts this song on. How do I explain that success? The story behind it impresses, of course. At the same time, the piece is very tonally oriented, it has an almost classical sonata form. The music is layered in a way, there is room to hear your own things in it.’