As part of the summer festival, Casa del Jazz will host the concert WIM MERTENS PIANO SOLO - Ranges of Robustness. The great Belgian pianist and composer returns to Rome after five years, following his last sold-out performance at the Cavea of the Parco della Musica in 2020.

Wim Mertens began his career in 1980 after working as a musicologist and radio producer. His first release, For Amusement Only, consisted solely of the sound of pinball machines. This album was followed by At Home-Not at Home (1981), Vergessen (1982), Struggle for Pleasure (1983), and Maximizing the Audience (1984). His music is carefully crafted with an innovative language and diverse sound volumes, ranging from solo piano to symphonic orchestras.

Today, Mertens has over 70 albums to his name and regularly performs live across Europe, North and Central America, Japan, Thailand, and Russia. In 2019, he released the album Inescapable, a limited edition box set offering a retrospective of four decades of composition (1980-2020).

His latest composition, Ranges of Robustness (2024), explores various forms and degrees of the notion of “strength, vigor.” The nine compositions are presented “in the form our time demands,” in the composer’s own words, with his timeless thinking addressing the challenges of today.

WIM MERTENS - BIOGRAPHY

Belgian composer Wim Mertens is an internationally renowned artist who has recorded and performed countless solo and ensemble concerts across Europe, North and Central America, Japan, Thailand, and Russia. He began his studies at the Conservatory of Brussels and graduated in Political and Social Sciences from the Catholic University of Leuven and in Musicology from the University of Ghent.

Mertens is also the author of the book American Minimal Music (1980), the first publication to deeply analyze the American school of repetitive music. His early landmark albums are Vergessen and Struggle for Pleasure (1982), which includes Close Cover, a piece that remains one of his classics. In 1998, Mertens was appointed cultural ambassador of Flanders.

Since 1980, Mertens has composed works in various formats, from short, accessible themes or Lieder to grand, complex three- and four-part cycles for various settings: from solo piano to chamber music ensembles or symphonic orchestras. He often composes for unusual instrumentations: twelve piccolos, ten bass trombones, thirteen clarinets. Since his debut release in 1980, For Amusement Only (an electronic composition for pinball machines), Wim Mertens has released around 70 albums.

Voices, Ensembles, and Cycles

The 1985 album Maximizing the Audience introduced the voice into Mertens’ music, an element that grew in albums such as A Man of No Fortune, and With a Name to Come (1986), After Virtue (1988), Stratégie de la rupture (1991), Jérémiades (1995), Der heisse Brei (2000), and Un respiro (2005). Mertens sings with a high voice, using a language of his own invention.

Over the years, Mertens has released albums for various ensembles: Motivi di scrittura (1988), Jardin clos (1996), Shot and Echo - A Sense of Place (1992), Integer valor - Intégrale (1999), Skopos (2003), Partes extra partes (2005), recorded with the Brussels Philharmonic, and Receptacle (2007), performed by a group of 17 musicians, all women, and L’heure du loup (2008).

The ambitious 37-CD cycle Qua began in 1991 with the trilogy Alle dinghe, followed by the tetralogy Gave van niets in 1994, the trilogy Kere Weerom in 1999, and the tetralogy Aren lezen in 2001. In 2009, the complete Qua cycle was released in a box set. Other special releases include the album Sin embargo for guitar (1997) and Moment (2003), a box set with 13 albums covering the period 1980-1989 and 80 compositions.

In 2002, Mertens released the first album of the live series Years Without History, which includes recordings from the 1980s. So far, the series consists of seven albums: Moins de mètre, assez de rythme (2002), In the Absence of Hindrance (2002), Cave musicam (2002), Not Yet, No Longer (2004), With No Need for Seeds (2004), The Promise Kept in Advance (2008, included only in the Years Without History 6-CD box set), and Nosotros (2008). In 2006, his first live recording on DVD, What You See is What You Hear, features 16 selected compositions from his 25-year career.

Film, Theatre, and Scores

Since July 2003, various scores by Mertens have been released. Notable projects include composing and performing live original music for piano and voice for the silent films La femme de nulle part (The Woman from Nowhere) by Louis Delluc and The Land Beyond the Sunset by Harold Shaw in 1993. After these films, he composed a piece for Christian Dior’s new men’s fashion collection, performed live by the Wim Mertens Ensemble during Paris Fashion Week in early 2008.

Mertens also works for theatrical productions and films. His soundtracks include Il potere della follia teatrale (1984) by Jan Fabre, Il ventre dell’architetto (1987) by Peter Greenaway, Je pense à vous (1992) by the Dardenne brothers, Li - Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (1992) by Marion Hänsel, and Father Damien (1999) by Paul Cox, among others.

Releases from 2009 include the Music and Film CD box set, three discs covering a wide selection of Mertens’ film music and a reissue of the Father Damien soundtrack from 1999.

In June 2009, EMI Classics released the Qua cycle, starting from 1990 with Alle dinghe, followed by Gave van niets in 1994, Kere weerom in 1999, and Aren lezen in 2001. All 37 albums are now available in an elegant box set. At the same time, the studio album The World Tout Court was released.

Zee versus Zed was released in 2010 with ten tracks for strings, brass, harp, and guitar. With titles like Zusammensetzen, Zing’up, Zoet’kemiesch, and the vocal album Z’s Rival, he uses the last letter of the alphabet as a thread.

2011: A Broader Musical Scale

2011 was a special year. With the double album Series of Ands - Immediate Givens, the composer used a broader musical scale, involving over 30 musicians. A full range of string instruments, horns, guitars, harp, and even a harpsichord created a hyper-orchestral sound, reflecting a surprising development of the composer’s palette.

Mertens composed A Starry Wisdom for the Festival van Vlaanderen in Ghent, Belgium, performing two concerts, one at St. Bavo’s Cathedral (solo piano) and one at the Town Hall with his ensemble. He later released a double CD-DVD titled Open Continuum, which includes live recordings with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife at the Auditorio de Tenerife Adán Martín in Spain. For this special occasion, Mertens played the piano and sang, presenting 19 compositions from his vast repertoire. The composer explored a new relationship between the pianist-vocalist and the symphonic orchestra, a three-way interaction: soloist-orchestra-conductor.

In December 2011, Mertens was commissioned to create a new piece to inaugurate the new research buildings at the Catholic University of Leuven. On December 8, he presented Telles Quelles with extensive preparation. His inspiration came from the scientific literature of researchers Bart Destrooper, Peter Carmeliet, and Catherine Verfaillie. Spanish video artist Cristóbal Vila created a 3D video for this piece.

In the same year, Mertens was commissioned to compose and perform live in the city of Guimarães, Portugal, which was the European Capital of Culture for 2012. On March 7, he premiered When Tool Met Wood with the Fundação Orquestra Estúdio conducted by Rui Massena at the Centro Comercial Vila Flor in Guimarães.