Red, Dark and Blue. Two sharply contrasting colours, divided by a more general shade. This title is not an alternative representation of the traditional combination of red, white and blue; it is a reflection of the colours that run through the music on this CD.

“I wanted to expose listeners to my spectrum of perceived musical colours, and I expected that this title would be thought-provoking,” explains Vincent van Amsterdam. He has strong colour associations with the works he presents here: from the lovely warm red of Bach and the fiery red of Solotarjov, through the ominous darkness of Gubaidulina to the breezy blue of the first movement of Kusjakov’s Images and the icy and distant blue of Shalygin. These associations stem from different aspects of the music: “In Shalygin’s work, the blue atmosphere comes from the way the music sounds. In Gubaidulina’s music, the dark connection originates in the subject matter: the end of the world.”

— From the booklet notes by Marten van der Meulen