Erik LOTICHIUS (b.1929)
Symfonietta for Strings* [22:12]
Piano Concerto No. 2 for piano, strings and 3 saxophones [22:23]
Four Songs on native American Poetry for mezzo and orchestra (With Rejoicing
Mouth 4:34; The Arrival of the Whites 5:04; On the Death of Atahualpa 4:31;
Lord, Most Generous 2:58) [17:07]
Jo Vercruysse (violin) *; Eliane Rodrigues (piano)
Maria Liekens, Karla van Loo, Rudy Haemers (saxophones)
Michelle Mallinger (mezzo)
Prima La Musica/Dirk Vermeulen
rec. 6-8 July 2008, Sound Recording Centre Steurbaut. DDD
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 9158 [60:41] 
Erik LOTICHIUS (b.1929)
Vocal works:
CD 1: Songs, French chansons, ditties for mezzo, piano and alto saxophone.
Hantzen Houwert (mezzo); Erik Lotichius (piano); Benny Laureyn (saxophone)
rec. studio Crescendo, Genk.
CD 2: Hymns and French chansons for mezzo and piano.
Caren van Oijen (mezzo); Alessandro Misciasci (piano).
Titles of songs listed at end of review
rec. Bloomline Coryphee (producer/director Leo de Klerk), s'Gravendeel.
released 2001
Q DISC Q 97008 [61:04 + 48:21]
Erik LOTICHIUS (b.1929)
Chamber Music
Rebotko, for two flutes and piano [15:40]
Inez Lotichius (flute); Pauline Lotichius (piano), Lilian Lotichius (piano)
String Quartet 1 [18:12]
String quartet 7 [13:16]
Zephyr Quartet.
Four pieces from Anaitalrax (15 pieces for piano).[12:26]
Ralph van Raat.(piano)
rec. 2001-02. released 2003
Q DISC Q97057 [59:54] 
Erik Lotichius was first taught piano by his mother. He turned to violin and
composition during his teens and continued his studies with piano, composition
and music theory at the Amsterdam Conservatoire. There he became professor
of counterpoint, harmony, ear-training and analysis, and later arranging.
His receptive and accessible inclinations are very evidently not avant-garde
and happily accommodate and synthesise jazz, popular styles and minimalism.
His prodigious worklist includes Eindhoven '44 (about the liberation
of Eindhoven), Lyrisch Intermezzo (a day in the lives of Rossini, Wagner
and Schubert), Variations on Mood Indigo for symphony orchestra, Hiphop
- a burlesque for piano and (amateur) orchestra, Concerto giocoso for
violin and string orchestra, Concerto for two double-basses and string orchestra,
Concerto for two trumpets and youth orchestra (strings), 24 preludes and fugues
for string quartet, three symphonies, a Requiem and Eline (1990)
an opera for mezzo, two baritones and an instrumental ensemble. There are,
at last count, some nine other stage works - operas, musical and entertainments.
You can read more about his life and music at www.eriklotichius.be
He has also written Roos and Roos ontdekt de wereld - children's books
about an English Sheepdog.
We turn to the Brilliant Classics disc (easily accessible) first.
The Symfonietta is in five cleanly orchestrated brief movements and
would make a nice companion to the Wirén Serenade. The Praeludium
is imbued with a ripely brusque life-force around a challenging motif
echoing Beethoven's 5th - the Fate motif. The Blues Fantasia transforms
the motif further and is coupled with music lent a bluesy sway. This comes
before a rattling and chattering Zuniga with just a touch of Spain
about it. The Moorish caste to Jo Vercruysse's capriciously romantic violin
solo shoots adoring glances back to Bruch and Sarasate. The insistently shivering
steely-delicate finale is an emotionally drier affair.
The three movement Second Piano Concerto starts with a severe gesture from
the strings contrasting with gently unassertive lightheartedness from the
piano. The piano soon persuades the orchestra into the same mood which is
further consolidated in honeyed intimacy from the choir of three saxophones.
The romantic and nostalgic proclivities of these ideas remind me of Malcolm
Arnold and Glazunov; the latter in his Saxophone Concerto. The pensive middle
movement continues the theme. The final Poco Allegro ripples along
giving urgent chase with something of the character of a tarantella but with
those delectable saxophones again softening the ruthless mood Ultimately a
sort of optimistic anxiety wins the day.
The Four Songs are in a populist sentimental style yet highly polished
and capable. They have the shadows of the fashionable tango, of Gershwin and
of French film music of the 1950s alternating and commingling over their pages.
Mezzo Michelle Mallinger rises to the drama though the control-desk should
have favoured her more against the orchestra. The final song leans on that
brand of urgency angst and Philip Glass motor-rhythm that we hear in the Symfonietta.
The words of the songs are printed in the booklet.
The Q disc 2 CD set of songs continues the trend but on a more intimate scale.
The 25 songs on CD 1 are sung very stylishly by Hantzen Houwert. The words
are English and Houwert's lightly accented voice suits their cabaret loucheness,
jazzy pulse and tango smokiness to a tee. They are traced, touched off and
caressed by the saxophone. All very entertaining, provocative and touching.
Splendid and rather in the same mould as Elizabeth Montgomery's recitals with
Richard Rodney Bennett, Cleo Laine's Shakespeare songs and Madeleine Dring's
intelligent cabaret contributions? We also hear the native American Poetry
songs heard on the Brilliant disc. These are all songs confidently migrating
around the shadowlands between concert hall and popular sophistication. The
second disc is packed with 20 lieder in a tonal pattern. Their roots are struck
deep into nineteenth century lieder. Schoeck might be a parallel but these
are more varied in mood being extruded and transformed through a late 20th
century alembic. The chamber concert voice of Caren van Oijen suits the music
in much the same way that Houwert fulfils the requisite qualities demanded
by the lighter world of the more populist CD1.
The other volume - one disc this time - samples the Lotichius chamber music.
Rebotko, for two flutes and piano is an urgently and sometimes slowly
insistent, even obsessive and flighty, little melodic affair - very tuneful
though the ideas do not go very far. Definitely affected by minimalism but
then so is the First String Quartet which, across its four characterful and
melodically direct yet by no means simplistic movements, also touches on the
worlds of Weill and tango. The Anaitalrax pieces represent an exhibition
of diverse styles culminating in Ragtime - all convincingly carried off. The
three movement Seventh Quartet begins very strongly in a Glass-insistent hush
of urgency with some Bruckner subsumed alongside Bernard Herrmann. Excellent
performances throughout. This is music that is not hard to like. It will appeal
on first hearing yet have enough fibre to draw you back.
We must hope to hear more especially Eline, the three symphonies, the
complete Anaitalrax sequence, the Variations on Mood Indigo and
the Hiphop burlesque. Though hardly the same this music should appeal
to those who like Kapustin, Glass or Arnold.
Rob Barnett
Confident and accessible music which does not confuse familiarity and
populism with blandness.
Contents of Vocal works - Q Disc set
It really must be nice; Sondern ich werde sterben; Familiale; Chanson;
Since you, sir went away; Poem in three parts; Und ich werde nicht mehr
sehen; Makes me feel funny; Petite camusette; With rejoicing mouth; Dass von
mir gereinigt werde; The day it rained; Mort; On the death of atahualpa;
Weil ich eingebrochen bin; So many memories; Le meilleur moment des amours;
Lord, most generous; Brüder, wenn ich bei euch wäre; I'm glad; Floris &
stokstra; First man was the first to emerge; Erinnerung an die Marie; One of
these days; Egidius, waer bestu bleven?; Come away death; Gegen ferführung;
My down mood; O mistress mine; Intermezzo van de oude heer en het
danseresje; Am grunde der Moldau; Music makes me think; Sigh no more,
ladies; La luna asoma; Das lied vom freudenmädchen; A moon rising white; I
like my body; Malagueña; Nummer één zei; Green, green; What lips my lips
have kissed; La guitarra; Pour toi mon amour; Pure peace music