News from / about Maestro Hector Olivera

Personal note from Hector Olivera about the composing of this Psalm 138:

"In 1983 I went for my first trip to the Netherlands. I was introduced to a great musician and a great organist by the name of Willem Hendrik Zwart.

He showed me the organ at the Bovenkerk in Kampen, and it was instant love for this magnificent organ. I can still remember Willem Hendrik Zwart playing his Psalm 25 for me.

When I asked Willem Hendrik where the themes for this composition came from, I was introduced to the music of the Psalms. Being that modern music has never been my favorite kind of music, I fell in love with Mr. Zwart's style of writing. Here was a man writing and improvising music based on Hymn tunes, the same way Johann Sebastian Bach did in the 1700s.

Later, Willem Hendrik Zwart invited me to play a concert at the Bovenkerk and through his son Jan Quintus who was starting his own recording company, JQZ, I made an LP on this magnificent Hinsz-Orgel.

This Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue on the Psalm 138 was really composed having in mind the Hinsz organ at St. Nicholas, the Bovenkerk in Kampen and Willem Zwart, the man and his art who introduced to me this style of writing music for the organ.

I think that it is very proper for me that – on the occasion of the first publishing of the Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue on the Psalm 138–  I dedicate it to Willem Hendrik Zwart"

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