Voice of Space

VOICE OF SPACE [La Voix des Airs] is inspired by a painting of the surrealistic painter René Magritte [1898 - 1967]. The painting was made in 1931 and is part of the Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice. Together with James Ensor, Constant Permeke and André Delvaux, Magritte is among the most famous Belgian painters of the 20th century.

He was an extremely prolific and multifaceted artist, whose catalogue boasts over eleven hundred paintings and seven hundred gouaches. He also designed many commercial posters and illustrated several musical scores. VOICE OF SPACE is the first part of THE VENETIAN COLLECTION, a cycle in which Johan de Meij gives his musical impressions of four different paintings from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

VOICE OF SPACE has been commissioned by l’Orchestre d’Harmonie de Strasbourg [France] on the occasion of the band’s 155th anniversary. The world premiere took place on March 5th, 2000 at a Gala Concert given by the guest band, The Royal Symphonic Band of the Belgian Air Force, conducted by Alain Crepin. For its anniversary the band commissioned some ten compositions by European composers, among those Ida Gotkovski, Jérôme Naulais and Roger Boutry.

The second part of THE VENETIAN COLLECTION is subtitled THE RED TOWER [La Torre Rossa], referring to a painting by the Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico, whom Magritte admired very much. The third part is called MAGIC GARDEN [Zaubergarten] by Paul Klee and the cycle is closed by EMPIRE OF LIGHT [L’Empire des Lumières] another painting by René Magritte. The four paintings are displayed at the Peggy Guggenheim museum in Venice. Together with other outstanding museums in New-York, Bilbao and Berlin, this collection is part of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, one of the largest private art collections in the world.

In November 2000 THE RED TOWER was awarded the 1st Prize at the International Composition Contest of OMAN.