BarcaNova Records – a new label that must be heard

BarcaNova Records is a relatively new Dutch label that must be heard. On their stylishly ‘cool’ website, BarcaNova founder, Hubert Koekenberg, outlines the label’s adage as follows: “Passionate and devoted to classical music, we aspire only perfection. Putting our all into producing only the best music”. Surely a stimulating statement invoking immediate curiosity among dedicated […]

Unusual Repertoire that Merits wider Acknowledgment

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 […]

Trumpet Treasures

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 […]

Old AND New – Another way of Looking at Things

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 […]

Truly Exceptional Rachmaninoff performances by Fedorova

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 […]

Memorable Performance with Joyful Grandeur

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 […]

Wytske Holtrop “Cello Frysienne”

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 […]

Every downloaded bit of it is worth its value in Gold

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 […]