Equinox. A time of change. The moment when extremes come together, in balance and perfect harmony. “It’s representative of how I make music now,” says acclaimed Dutch pianist and recent Edison Classical Award winner Pieter de Graaf. “And how I live.” The perfect title for his new collection of songs then, ten beguiling tracks – some quiet and plaintive, others possessed of a restive energy – that build on the warm, filmic grandeur of his debut proper Fermata, and cement his status as one of the neo-classical world’s brightest stars.
Equinox is de Graaf embracing who he is, and working with his personality, not against it. “I’m not a thinker, I’m a feeler,” he says; the change of being at peace with this, and aligning the contradictory aspects of his life has been revelatory. Trusting his instincts too. With night and day of equal length, an equinox represents an evolution of the seasons, a subtle shift to something new. Equinox does the same for Pieter de Graaf.
