Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Simone Lamsma & Candida Thompson – Pärt über Bach (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 58:04 minutes | 1,72 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Channel Classics
Violinists Simone Lamsma and Candida Thompson explore connections between J.S. Bach and Arvo Part on their new release Part uber Bach with Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Arvo Part’s groundbreaking Tabula Rasa is presented alongside Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin in the version for 2 violins, and Part’s own Collage uber B-A-C-H, written in 1964 wherein the Estonian master intertwines his own modernist music with phrases from J.S. Bach’s music.
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Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Candida Thompson – The Mahler Album (2011)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 59:28 minutes | 2,34 GB | Genre: Classical
Source: ISO SACD | © Channel Classics Records B.V. | Front Cover, Booklet
“A quartet for string orchestra! That sounds strange to you. I already know all the objections that will be raised: ruination of intimacy, of individuality. But that is an error. What I intend is only an ideal representation of the quartet. Chamber music is primarily written for the living room. It is really enjoyed only by the performers. The four ladies and gentlemen who sit at their music stands are also the audience towards which this music turns. If chamber music is transferred to the concert hall, this intimacy is already lost. But even more is lost. In a large space the four voices are lost and do not speak to the listener with the power that the composer wanted to give them. I give them this power by strengthening the voices. I unravel the expansion that is dormant in the voices and give the sounds wings.”
Thus Mahler in an open letter in the Viennese newspaper Die Wage in January 1899. On 14 January, during his first season as chief conductor of the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra, he was to conduct the premiere of his arrangement for string orchestra of Beethoven’s String Quartet opus 95 ‘Quartetto serioso’. And what Mahler had anticipated did indeed occur during this concert: after the first movement loud cries of boo erupted, countered by fervent applause from Mahler’s supporters. Despite his deep conviction, Mahler never performed his arrangement again. His score and the orchestral parts were found in the late 1980s in the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra archive. The arrangement was first published in 1990, and since then Mahler’s version of the ’Quartetto serioso’ has had a permanent place on concert stages around the world.
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Rufus Wainwright & Amsterdam Sinfonietta – Rufus Wainwright and Amsterdam Sinfonietta (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 57:57 minutes | 1,09 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Modern Recordings
In January 2017 Rufus Wainwright toured with the prestigious all string ensemble Amsterdam Sinfonietta through the Netherlands. Critics and audiences of the ten concerts were enraptured by the intimacy and intensity of the program curated by Wainwright. The concerts reflected the immense bandwidth of Wainwright’s musical influences and interests from Verdi Arias to Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell, from Rameau pieces to the American songbook and French chanson and from Wainwright’s beloved Berlioz to his family’s and his own songs, some of them written for this program. Emotional center piece of the album is Wainwright’s almost 9 minute version of late Canadian singer songwriter Lhasa de Sela;s harrowing “I’m going in”, a song she wrote about her own death from cancer at the age of 37. All arrangements were created specifically for the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and around Wainwright’s voice that is truly at the peak of its power. The artistic kinship between Wainwright and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta lead by Candida Thompson is astounding and make these live recordings into something utterly unique and breathtaking. “Rufus Wainwright and Amsterdam Sinfonietta Live 2017” will be released on BMG’s Modern Music Label as vinyl, CD and digital releases with two bonus tracks on the digital formats. The album was mixed by multiple Grammy winner Ryan Freeland and mastered by Ruairi O’Flaherty both in Los Angeles and is comprised of live recordings from five of the ten concerts.
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Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Candida Thompson – Dvorak, Haas & Schulhoff – The Bohemian Album (2009)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:18:01 minutes | 3,08 GB | Genre: Classical
Source: ISO SACD | © Channel Classics Records B.V. | Front Cover, Booklet
The Bohemian AlbumAmsterdam Sinfonietta has combined aromantic masterpiece of the string orchestrarepertoire with two wild compositions from theinter-war period. Dvo?ák, Haas, and Schulhoffhardly make a conventional mixture, but allthree of these composers had their roots in aregion which was known for many centuriesas “Bohemia.” One can hear this commonground in the rhythmic diversity, the influenceof folk music, and the melodic inventivenessthat characterizes their music. Haas andSchulhoff were part of a very promising groupof composers whose music was proclaimed“entartet” [degraded] at the end of the 1930s.Fortunately, their music has been rediscoveredand performed in recent decades. Themusic of Haas and Schulhoff is refreshinglyrebellious and original, and forms a contrastwith Dvo?ák’s romantic Serenade. Marijn vanProoijen wrote out a beautiful double-basspart for the works of Haas and Schulhoff,which were originally conceived for stringquartet.
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Pauline Oostenrijk, Nienke Oostenrijk, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Jaap ter Linden – Oboe passion – Arias & concertos by J.S. Bach & sons (2011)
This 2-CD set is a re-issue of two separate albums, the first being a collection of arias for soprano and oboe by J.S. Bach performed by Pauline Oostenrijk and her sister the soprano Nienke Oostenrijk, (previously available on Vanguard), and the second a performance by Pauline of concertos by J.S. Bach, and two of his sons J.C. Bach and C.P.E Bach. Both recordings feature the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and conductor (and well-known cellist) Jaap ter Linden.
In 1999 Pauline Oostenrijk received the Music Prize of The Netherlands, the highest State Award for classical music. She is a member of the Orlando Wind Quintet and the ensemble Nieuw Amsterdams Peil, and several composers have dedicated works to her, among them Louis Andriessen. Pauline Oostenrijk’s previous releases for Challenge Classics include a collection of 20th century pieces ‘Oboesession’ (CC72062), and a disc devoted to concertos by Vivaldi (CC72389).
Pauline Oostenrijk’s sister Nienke appears in opera roles as well as on the concert platform, and has performed throughout Europe but mostly in The Netherlands and Germany. She is also a much sought-after Lieder singer.
Nienke and Pauline Oostenrijk have performed these works many times before, and their familiarity with and love for these pieces radiates warmly through your speakers. Nienke’s soprano voice is a touch darker than choirboy purity, though it can take on this character at some moments. – MusicWeb International – February 2012
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Amsterdam Sinfonietta – Beethoven: String Quartet & Walton: Sonata for Strings (2005)
DSD64 Stereo (.dsf) 1 bit/2,8 MHz | Time: 54:30 min | 2,15 GB
FLAC Stereo (tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | 54:30 minutes | 1,08 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Digital booklet
Arrangements for string orchestra of works originally written for string quartet are not uncommon, especially in the cases of Beethoven. But in the amazing scherzo, with its huge climax not long before the movement’s end, the extra weight makes a substantial and thrilling difference. And in the slow third movement… there is an organ-like solemnity added by the basses, and that needs the supplementary upper strings to get the proper balance. The Walton piece is a complete success, making the piece sound as if it had originally been conceived for string orchestra.
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