Adrian Quanjer is a site reviewer at HRAudio, with many years of experience in classical music. He writes from his country retreat at Blangy-le-Château, France. As a regular concertgoer, he prefers listening to music in the highest possible resolution to recreate similar involvement at home. He is eager to share his thoughts with like-minded melomaniacs at NativeDSD.
Ole Bull, the other Norwegian composer from the town of Bergen, or, as Robert Schumann used to call him, the Norwegian Paganini, is for most music lovers and until this very day a hardly known mystery figure. We owe it to enterprising, though proudly nationalistic people like Morten Lindberg, the driving force behind 2L, that […]
Adrian Quanjer on Apr 30, 2020
Schumann, Mendelssohn and Schubert are seemingly sitting a bit forlorn between their ‘totally opposite’ Spanish numbers, who steal the show for all those, adventurous enough to open up their ears to modern times. Noelia Rodiles likes such combinations: “For me, this kind of pairing should be seen as the norm, rather than some kind of […]
Adrian Quanjer on Feb 25, 2020
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 […]
Adrian Quanjer on Feb 20, 2020
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 […]
Adrian Quanjer on Jan 23, 2020
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 […]
Adrian Quanjer on Dec 23, 2019
Regretting that Myrios no longer releases Super Audio CD’s, many will be glad to learn that recordings will henceforth be available through downloadable digital files from Native DSD. And let me assure all classical music fans: Not only doesn’t it have any negative impact on the quality, you will also get the choice of higher […]
Adrian Quanjer on Dec 19, 2019
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 […]
Adrian Quanjer on Nov 25, 2019
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 […]
Adrian Quanjer on Nov 25, 2019