Joep Beving (Netherlands) • Jazzkaar 2024
The emotional performances of Dutch composer and pianist Joep Beving are shaped with care and great mastery. Bar by bar, he guides us into his mellow piano minimalism. Reaching the destination, you can exhale contentedly and forget yourself for a moment. The piano keyboard patters like warm summer rain. And somewhere in the distance, the ghost of Erik Satie is nodding in approval.
Although the piano has been an important means of self-expression for Beving since childhood, he started his career as a professional composer rather late, releasing his first solo album in 2015. A little later, his compositions were heard by the Christian Badzura, A&R manager of the world-famous record label Deutsche Grammophon. The rest, as they say, is history: the release of the studio album Prehension, sold-out concerts around the world, and Joep becoming one of the most listened-to living pianists in the world.
Listening to Joep’s music, our imagination can take us to the heyday of Impressionism in 19th century Paris. We can see young people buzzing in the parks of Montmartre. Somewhere among them, Monet is capturing the sunrise on canvas, and gently inviting piano tunes are floating to us from a coffee shop around the corner. This is music for a romantic soul that prefers quiet places to noisy salons. The ascetic interior of the cafe makes room for Joep’s virtuosic music in our soul. His compositions are both stunning and exhilarating; romantic but never sententious; philosophically charged, but easy to understand. Shall we step in?
Performer:
Joep Beving – piano
