Inspired by four of Dutch-American painter Luc Leestemaker's abstract landscape paintings, Ho's Four Paintings by Leestemaker express moods as diverse as the paintings themselves. The first movement is colorfully animated and immediately striking, with an active background and distinct foreground; the second is somber in tone, drifting in and out of ambiguous harmonies before briefly coalescing into a unified entity; the third is simple and reflective in character; while the fourth movement has a youthful optimism that is full energetic lyricism, coloured by tastefully seasoned dissonances.
Vincent Ho is a Canadian who is widely recognised as one of the most exciting composers of his generation. He has made waves in the music world of North America despite being fairly early in his compositional career, receiving numerous prizes, accolades, and prominent commissions in a relatively short space of time. Ho’s music is rich and energetic - a unique integration of influences ranging from the visual arts, electroacoustic and natural soundscapes, traditional classical music forms, and the physical properties of the instruments and ensembles for which he writes. His music is sensual, sonorous and richly textured, and Ho gives considerable attention to the audience’s experience of his intricate sound-worlds.
