• Exclusive Stereo DSD 512, DSD 256, DSD 128, DSD 64 & DXD Editions of the Album at NativeDSD
• DSD Exclusive, Not Available on SACD Release

In their 14th DSD release at NativeDSD Music, Amsterdam Sinfonietta and their Director and Violinist Candida Thompson join baritone and pianist Thomas Oliemans and guest musicians Bert van den Brink, Ruben Drenth and Jens Meijer to bring our listeners Formidable! an album of French Chansons in Stereo and 5 Channel DSD.  The album is an early DSD release at NativeDSD, coming to our listeners 2 weeks before the official release date. 

Formidable! is exclusively available at NativeDSD in Stereo DSD 512 plus Stereo & 5 Channel DSD 256, DSD 128, DSD 64 and DXD.  This is a DSD Exclusive, Not Available on SACD release.

Notes from the artists

I have had French chansons in my head for as long as I can remember on a scratchy car radio or a cassette player, in the back seat for hours on end on the way to the Vendée or Dordogne, or softly issuing from a gramophone record in my father’s study below my bedroom, a compilation such as Vive La France or Jean Ferrat sings Aragon.

When I started to learn the piano and got into the habit of singing along, it was obviously French chansons that I picked up by ear and sang entirely phonetically. Julien Clerc with his franglais of This Melody, and Brel with his La chanson des vieux amants. The French teachers at my secondary school put me in for the Concours de la Chanson, which I promptly (and by accident) won. And all of a sudden, the path opened for me to become a professional singer or pianist, or at any rate a musician. It led me primarily into the world of classical singing, in opera, lied and oratorio, in which there was much to discover for my further development.

But the chanson was never far away. Indeed, at each stage of my musical development it appeared to grow with me. (…)

— Thomas Oliemans, voice & piano

Artistic curiosity runs in the veins of Amsterdam Sinfonietta and has resulted in numerous extraordinary projects. Under the successful title Breder Dan Klassiek [Broader Than Classical], for example, Amsterdam Sinfonietta presents classical music in combination with pop, Indian classical, rap or jazz, and has appeared with artists including Rufus Wainwright, Patrick Watson, De Dijk, Wende and Typhoon. Essential to this is the exchange of ideas and a genuine interest in each other’s repertoires and worlds.

Amsterdam Sinfonietta has a strong bond with the baritone Thomas Oliemans. In recent years he has sung classical repertoire with the orchestra. Until one evening he sang from the piano Charles Trenet’s Que reste-t-il de nos amours. An idea was born: a joint project focusing on the French chanson.

– Stephan Heber, artistic programmer, Amsterdam Sinfonietta

Recording ‘Formidable’ was a daunting task in such that I wanted the recording to sound natural and spontaneous. Listening to the original recordings of a.o. Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour which used a good deal of compression/limiting, in a dry studio, it would be a challenge to make use of the DSD technique with its depth of sound and dynamic range to record Thomas singing (who was also playing the piano at the same time).

During post-production I spent hours fine tuning the balance of Thomas (manually adjusting his voice) to match the ensemble. If Thomas was too loud – the orchestra was too soft, and vice versa. Listening softly in many different playback settings, even my iPhone, we got to the right mix to please everyone. I guess this mix will not be targeted for listening in the car!

— Jared Sacks, Producer, Recording Engineer and Mastering Engineer, Channel Classics Records

Amsterdam Sinfonietta
Candida Thompson – Director & Violin
Thomas Oliemans – Baritone & Piano
Bert van den Brink – Piano & Accordion
Ruben Drenth – Trumpet & Flugelhorn
Jens Meijer – Drums

For the physical CD, visit www.channelclassics.com