When talking about Simeon ten Holt, the first thing that comes to mind is his “Canto Ostinato”. However, there is another, much less performed, incomparably more complex, but no less beautiful “odyssey” of the composer – “Lemniscata”. Lemniscata is a term denoting a curve in the shape of an eight (∞), a symbol of infinity. Ten Holt himself compared this work to a toccata – because of its virtuoso texture. The premiere of “Lemniscata” took place in 1983 in Bergen (Netherlands), in the hall of an abandoned cinema with bare wooden floors. Slides with handwritten fragments of the score were shown on the surviving screen. The premiere lasted about 30 hours, turning the concert into a ritual.

Like Canto Ostinato, Lemniscata consists of musical sections — labyrinths with an infinite number of entrances and exits. Pianists can determine the duration, material, dynamics and registers as they play. Thus, the same Lemniscata performed in the morning may sound completely different by the evening of the same day with the same musicians. This is the essence of an open form and “creation in the process”, where, according to the author’s idea, music becomes a meditative journey through time and sound: “Time dissolves. Sound takes on form, and form becomes space.” At the concert in the Rassvet Community Center, pianists Vladimir Rakievsky and Pavel Dombrovsky will play Lemniscata on two grand pianos.