Ketevan Sharumashvili (piano) and Jeroen Dupont (violin) play the "Marcha Unión" and the "Fantasía en Fa Mayor" composed by Jan Gerard Palm (Curaçao, 1831-1906).
This recording took place by Ati Palm in the Fort Church in Curaçao on 9th June 2023.
Jan Gerard Palm is often referred to as the ‘Father of Curaçao’s classical music’ and as the ‘Patriarch of the musical Palm dynasty’ that includes composers such as Jacobo Palm, Rudolf Palm, Jean Bernard Antoine Palm, Edgar Palm, Albert Palm and Robert Rojer. By a relatively young age, Jan Gerard Palm had already directed several music ensembles. In 1859, he was appointed music director of the citizen’s guard orchestra on Curaçao. Jan Gerard Palm played several instruments including piano, organ, clarinet, flute, lute and mandolin. As an organist, Palm played for many years in the Jewish Emanu-El and Mikvé Israel synagogues, the Protestant Fort Church and the Igualdad Lodge on Curaçao.
As a composer, Jan Gerard Palm can be characterized as original, bold and sometimes even brazen. The uniqueness of his creative talent was his ability to combine delicate sensitivity and forceful vitality. His waltzes and mazurkas show a rich use of harmonic variations. His polkas, marches and galop reveal his flamboyant lifestyle. Palm was often progressive in the sense of not being afraid of using chords that were (and still are) relatively unusual. The rhythms that he wrote for each of his danzas are typically complex, very Creole and sensual. In the predominantly prudish 19th century, he was the only composer who dared to write passionate tumbas. Alongside dance music, Palm also wrote larger works for the orchestra, and for piano and violin, marches and several pieces for services in the synagogue, the protestant church and the Lodge.
Jan Gerard Palm wrote a number of serenades, fantasies and marches for violin and piano. These are characterized by surprising transitions in key, style and arrangement, often delivering an excellent effect. The three fantasies included on this CD were first performed in 1885 during a concert in the Fort Church in Curaçao. After this performance, the Curaçao newspaper Curaçaosche Courant, in its review, named Palm the "Best musician that Curaçao has produced".
Links:
www.palmmusicfoundation.com
www.ketisharu.com/
jeroendupont.nl/