Dimitri Arnauts / Ressenyes

Johann Sebastian Bach, who doesn't know him? Who knows Dimitri Arnauts-Kolokolov? Amid the greenery of Kampenhout, the municipality where the Van Beethoven family had and still has its roots, an unknown composer sits in an attic room somewhere, almost continuously stringing the notes together. Through a 'like' on some post on a social network, I saw 'composer' next to a name unknown to me. Never heard of a Horace in our primary school class, but it certainly wasn't that one. What are you doing then? Just browsing the world wide web where I found a website and music. The music on it exudes Bach from front to back, from back to front and on all sides. It's something different, in these times, right? A composer who harkens back to the past and does not hide this. An email, a phone call, an appointment. Coffee with cake. So it had to be good! It's hard to believe, but the almost 50-year-old composer has never really been seriously discussed anywhere. He makes do with rather limited resources to squeeze one work after another out of his head and immortalize it on staves. Coincidentally, just before I contacted him, he hit the German press with – yet again – an unexecuted work. He owes this to a composition he dedicated to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. He was able to get this work 'In honorem Benedicti XVI' to the right address, even though the Pope did not hear it. Two days after the musical tribute was delivered, Benedict XVI died. It brought the romantic with a baroque slant to the newspapers and who knows, it may finally be performed as it should be: not digitally via the computer, but by an orchestra, live in the concert hall or church. A church is perhaps the ideal place because 90% of the convinced Christian man Dimitri Arnauts' works are religiously inspired. In Bach's time this was the most normal thing in the world, today it is almost the exception to the exception. Who still writes music for an almost empty church? A tree can be planted over it because not all religious music is written to be performed during a worship service. A person does not necessarily have to be a convinced Christian to be captivated by religious music, not only because of the melody, but also because of the lyrics. Arnauts is driven and talks happily. Numerous topics are discussed during the conversation, not only musically. The composer also has a thing for architecture, for example, and he passionately explains how he sees things, just like in the visual arts, literature and life. He has a very dominant sense of beauty, an urge for harmony, balance, melody, logical streamlines, natural colors, simplicity and the richness that this all gives. The (too) abstract is foreign to him, especially in his music. And yet he is not rigid or fanatical about Bach or Beethoven, his other musical idol. Although Bach is present in one way or another in almost all his works, Arnauts is sometimes strikingly contemporary, not in terms of modern composition techniques, but in creating something new that bears the traces of many centuries of music composition in Europe and shows that there is still room for something new. You can work on Spotify, YouTube and on Arnauts' own websites - easily 300! – listen to it from his hand. It's a shame he has to make do with electronics. His dream is to have a real orchestra, and perhaps suddenly conduct a large symphony like Karl Richter did in the mid-20th century. Today Bach on his Richters? That is no longer possible, it has to be purist with a limited line-up because Bach had nothing at his disposal other than a handful of musicians and singers. However, Arnauts loves those full romantic settings, especially the way Karl Richter performed Bach with them. Some will not find this acceptable because it is a curse against historical performance practice. Others may still enjoy it, even if they are not slumped in the armchair. Isn't it allowed to listen to a broad, woolly Bach? Arnauts thinks so, especially because he is certain that Bach would have worked with a much larger ensemble of instrumentalists and singers had he had access to them. Would you contradict that? As far as performance practice and interpretations of Bach's works are concerned, this is ultimately not about Bach, but about Dimitri Arnauts-Kolokolov's works and they are contemporary. A time where people composed for all types of instruments, including 'historical' ones. That's the luxury we enjoy now. If you listen to Arnaut's compositions, you will hear that it requires more than a small ensemble that Bach was forced to make do with. A large organ – for example a large Bach organ such as the one that now shines in the Sint-Michielskerk in Leuven – and certainly an orchestra, that is what demands a lot from Arnauts' music. Who dares to program one or more of Dimitri Arnauts' compositions? The audience will judge and I won't be surprised if they ask for more. Give this inspired creator a chance!