The surprise couldn’t be grander. In his liner notes Ralph Rousseau tells us that except for a handful of Viola da Gamba players, few have for a long time been aware of Carl Friedrich Abel’s Sonatas. I, too, was not all too familiar with many of them. With this TRPTK release, the surprise couldn’t be […]
What is the secret? Find some good players, select music that is not yet (Mozart) or hardly (Beethoven) available in high definition, written by famously appreciated composers, and recorded by Jared Sacks. That’s all. And when it’s done, the pleasure is entirely yours. So, what more need I say? The logo? The cover of the […]
It is said that many good things have their origin in bad times.The proof is here. No matter what national policies had to be followed, fact is that over the past two years most of international cultural life came to an abrupt halt. Empty venues, concerts postponed, musicians hoping for better times. However, and thanks […]
Angelo Verploegen and Jasper van Hulten: The Duke Book (Just Listen Records) Jazz performance is sometimes compared to a tightrope walk. A dialogue between a horn player and a percussionist, with no piano, guitar or bass to provide the harmonic foundation, is like a tightrope walk without a net. On their recent album “The Duke […]
It took 18-year-old Sergueï Vassilievitch Rachmaninoff, working from early morning to late at night, no more than two and a half days to finish the original version of his First Piano Concerto by adding a middle and final movement to an earlier unfinished ‘concerto’ movement. It is modelled to Grieg’s piano concerto and, musical education […]
Over the years interpretation of Baroque music has seen some considerable changes, moving from slow, almost dragging performances to the more recent agitated, almost aggressive versions, all in the name of Historically Informed Practice, with a wide variety in between. A notable example is Hermann Scherchen’s 1960 LP set of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti. At the […]
What do the world-famous Dutch cellist, Anner Bijlsma, who passed away earlier this year, and his younger colleague, Wytske Holtrop, have in common? Both are closely linked to the same province in the Netherlands where Wytske’s cradle stood: Friesland. The next question then is: Do Friesians have something in their genes that produces cello players […]
Audiophile jazz listeners, take note! New music labels Just Listen and Sound Liaisons are recording and releasing the creative sounds of contemporary jazz from the Netherlands in DSD audio. Jazz music created and performed in the UK, Scandinavia, Germany, France and Italy is widely reviewed in print media, books, and websites. But articles and news about […]
How many will actually hear that these symphonies are played by only 9 musicians? Ernst Spyckerelle, responsible for all the arrangements, puts it this way, “How can we expand the repertoire for nonet, uncover the chamber music in orchestral pieces, while also working our own group sound?” And: “Making a musical arrangement is best compared […]
Military bands are common, some are good, few are better. The Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy clearly belongs to the latter category, as listening to this new release will amply confirm. Run of the mill Oompah bands have their much-rewarded and appreciated social function in village life, but here we are dealing with […]