In 2024, composer Daan Manneke celebrated his 85th birthday. As a tribute, the particularly beautiful CD Archipel Xwas released, featuring Gerben Budding at the Dom organ in Utrecht, together with soprano Nanette Mans. (Orgelnieuws.nl)
The first part of Archipel X is framed by a homage to the 12th-century composers Léonin and Pérotin, in a work that cinematically bridges time and space and evokes a medieval atmosphere. (Orgelnieuws.nl)
In between comes music chosen by Manneke himself—music that inspired him throughout his life: Bach, Gregorian chant, Messiaen, Franck, and Couperin. This is immediately a textbook example of programming artistry, in which old and new music enter into dialogue with one another—a characteristic of the CD’s overall concept.
The sonorous, timeless pealing of the Dom bells of Utrecht introduces the second section and transitions surprisingly into the Basler Psalmen, a majestic monument by Daan Manneke to the Genevan psalter, composed for the millennium celebration of the Basel Minster.
With these seven psalms, forget all the Dutch “chorale-art” craftsmen you’ve known so far; Manneke brings chorale settings back to their essence: making music purely and playfully with material derived directly from the cantus firmus.
A special repertoire find is the addition of a soprano. In a quasi-improvisatory manner, organist and singer engage in a playful, exciting, and varied dialogue. The sound world is unmistakably contemporary, but never extremely experimental. Make no mistake: the psalm is never far away. Nanette Mans’s supple yet focused voice proves perfectly suited to this composition.
Organist Budding also handles the score convincingly. He shows virtuosity on the keyboards and stops of the Dom organ, choosing exactly the wealth of expressive tone colors that Manneke calls for.
It is breathtaking when, amid the quasi-improvised music, the psalm melody suddenly appears—whether in fragments or in full. As in Psalm 65, which bears the meaningful title Friedenskonzert für Sopran und Orgel (“Peace Concert for Soprano and Organ”). Here a glorious release takes place: a highlight of the CD, a play of sound and a contemplation of sound that impress and move through beauty and expressive power.
The recording is clear, spacious, and detailed. The booklet, with fitting photos and texts, adds to the experience. The “archipelago” concept could have been explained more explicitly there: a landscape of “islands,” each with its own character, relating to one another yet forming a whole together. Musically, this translates into a world of sound that captivates and invites you to lose yourself in it endlessly.
The CD is a tribute to an important composer and to the Genevan psalter. A production that stands like a cathedral—inviting you to enter and experience it.
Manneke: Organum;
Bach: Christum wir sollen loben schon, BWV 611;
Gregorian chant: Alleluia pour la fête de la dédicace;
Messiaen: Verset pour la fête de la dédicace;
Franck: Lento et fugue (from Prélude, fugue et variation, Op. 18);
Dufay: Alma redemptoris Mater;
Sweelinck: Echo Fantasia in Dorian mode SwWV 261;
Couperin: Gloria, 5-ième couplet (from Messe pour les Couvents);
Manneke: Basler Psalmen (Psalms 8, 84, 105, 65, 47, 118, 33). (Orgelnieuws.nl)
Gerben Budding, Bätz organ (1831), Dom Church Utrecht; Nanette Mans, soprano. (Orgelnieuws.nl)
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