Guus Janssen: Composers’ Portrait

Several works by Guus Janssen will be premiered at the Orgelpark on 6 April. In 2021, the Geestgronden label released a CD (GG27) entitled ‘Organ’ with improvisations played by him on the organ of ‘de Vermaning’ in Zaandam. As a basis for those improvisations, he used material composed by him in all possible forms.

The collection ‘8 Pieces for Organ’ is based on the same material, but now Geerten van de Wetering, who will play the pieces on 6 April, has the choice of either improvising himself or opting for the versions composed by Guus Janssen or something in between. The advantage of improvising is that you have the choice of what to do entirely in your own hands; the disadvantage is that the result naturally stays with yourself, while Guus had the idea that he could also make other organists happy with the pieces all the more so because improvisation has traditionally been an essential element in the culture of organ playing.

In addition to the ‘8 Pieces for Organ’, Guus Janssen’s organ piece ‘Passeggiata’ will also go for a second time. The piece was previously performed in the Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague for which he composed it. Composing Passeggiata began with a small motif from Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Rondo III H.262, which sounds literally at the beginning of the piece. Bach himself repeats that motif and varies it rhythmically and in pitch. This evoked in Guus the association with a parade of musical events, similar to what in Italy is called the ‘Passeggiata’, the time in the late afternoon when everyone goes for a stroll in the streets. People pass each other, during which they may or may not engage in conversation. Similarly, in ‘Passeggiata’, many musics pass each other in all shapes and sizes and especially in all colours. He has high expectations of a performance in the Orgelpark because the aspect of the ever-changing colours, in particular, can be done full justice here.

Third, Guus Janssen’s ’14 Variations on a Concealed Theme’ will be premiered in the good hands of Gerard Bouwhuis. In recent years, he has created several pieces for solo piano. Being an improvising pianist for 40 years, there is not much-composed work of his for that instrument, and that while pianists often ask him for pieces. The ’14 Variations’ are based on a theme he could not include in the score for copyright reasons. The theme itself is a small, simple gospel-like number. In Guus Janssen’s Variations, this theme takes a great journey. It will move through a colourful and varied landscape like a chameleon while various musical styles and composers look over its shoulder.