Stavanger Symphony Orchestra & Jan Willem de Vriend – Schumann: Symphonies 1 & 2 (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Stavanger Symphony Orchestra & Jan Willem de Vriend – Schumann: Symphonies 1 & 2 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:06:41 minutes | 618 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics

Jan Willem de Vriend starts a new symphonic cycle dedicated to Schumann. This is the first recording with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra both for the conductor and for Challenge Classics.

Jan Willem de Vriend: Working with this orchestra is very special, and I think it has to do with a very old tradition. A long time ago, they invited my colleague, Frans Bruggen, just as he was starting to conduct. He learned the orchestra about the old music style, the way of playing in the time of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach–how they played and how you must approach the music. On his part, Bruggen put something in the orchestra that I would say is now part of their DNA: the flexibility, the curiosity, and the way to approach the music. It’s so special, here in Stavanger. Schumann’s music is to me something unique, because what he’s writing is so personal; on one hand it is sometimes very emotional, but on the other hand, it’s technically perfect. In music, I don’t often find those two elements together.

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Hannes Minnaar, The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Jan Willem de Vriend – Beethoven: The Complete Piano Concertos (2017) DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Hannes Minnaar, The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Jan Willem de Vriend – Beethoven: The Complete Piano Concertos (2017)
DSD64 (.dsf) 1 bit/2,8 MHz | Time – 169:59 minutes | 3,76 GB
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 169:59 minutes | 3,21 GB
Source: SACD-R, Challenge Classics # CC 72763 | Artwork: Digital Booklet(s)

Here is the box containing Beethoven’s five Piano Concertos performed by Hannes Minnaar and The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jan Willem de Vriend. So far two single volumes had been issued: while the one including Concertos nos. 4 & 5 was acclaimed by Gramophone as: “beginning a Beethoven cycle with the Fourth and Fifth Concertos is a bold move but one that pays off in all sorts of ways”, the same magazine welcomed the disc with Concertos nos. 1 & 2 for “its pleasing mix of finesse and drive”. Now the box also offers the so far unissued Concerto #3. Despite the very large number of recordings already made of this musical corpus, Minnaar and de Vriend have proved that they have something new and totally their own to say about this collection of masterpieces. And it is indeed the peculiar blend of sheer energy and esprit de finesse that can be identified as the distinctive brand or these recordings.

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Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Dejan Lazić & Jan Willem de Vriend – Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 23 & 14 (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Dejan Lazić & Jan Willem de Vriend – Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 23 & 14 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 55:06 minutes | 938 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics

Dejan Lazić: The concept behind our present undertaking, the Mozart Piano Concertos CD-trilogy, is to bring together concertos of Mozart’s miscellaneous composing and performing periods, styles, techniques, and instrumentations side by side, thus to deeply examine and throughout his travels more closely explore his many creative phases within this genre. That is linked further with an encore-like single work on each CD, yet the additional connecting link between these initially planned six piano concertos is the Cadenzas & Lead-ins which I have composed myself.

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Residentie Orkest The Hague, Jan Willem de Vriend – Schubert : The Complete Symphonies Vol. 2 (Nos. 1, 3, 8) (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Residentie Orkest The Hague, Jan Willem de Vriend – Schubert : The Complete Symphonies Vol. 2 (Nos. 1, 3, 8) (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:13:49 minutes | 686 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics

This is the second volume in de Vriend’s complete survey of Schubert’s symphonies and includes two youth symphonies (nos. 1 and 3) and the masterpiece that is the “Unfinished” Symphony No.8.

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Roberto Prosseda, Jan Willem de Vriend, Residentie Orkest – Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Roberto Prosseda, Jan Willem de Vriend, Residentie Orkest – Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:59 minutes | 1,09 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music Italia srL.

Prosseda already performed Mendelssohn piano concertos with more than 40 orchestras, including London Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Santa Cecilia di Roma and Leipzig Gewandhaus, with conductors such as David Afkham, Marc Albrecht, Harry Bickett, Riccardo Chailly, Yannick Nezeit-Seguin, Jurai Valcuha. He recorded the Piano Concerto No. 3 in the Decca CD “Mendelssohn Discoveries” with the Gewandhaus orchestra conducted by Riccardo Chailly. In 2016 he will record Piano Concertos No. 1 and 2 with the Residentie Orkest in De Hague conducted by Jan WIllem de Vriend. Prosseda often performs Mendelssohn’s Piano Concertos No. 1 and 2 in the same evening and it is possible to plan the complete performance of the four Piano Concertos in two evenings.

Roberto Prosseda’s repertoire also includes the two Concertos for two pianos and orchestra in E major and A flat major, that he usually plays with Alessandra Ammara, and the Concerto in D minor for violin, piano and strings.

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Jan Willem de Vriend, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Mari Eriksmoen – Arias and Overtures (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Jan Willem de Vriend, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Mari Eriksmoen - Arias and Overtures (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

Jan Willem de Vriend, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Mari Eriksmoen – Arias and Overtures (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:10:31 minutes | 670 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Classics

The profile of Norwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen continues to rise through her regular appearance on Europe’s major opera, concert and recital stages, and she is consistently praised for her compelling blend of radiant stage personality and purity of vocal tone. This is her first opera arias recital and is focused on Handel and Mozart. Previously on disc, Eriksmoen features on Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Daniel Harding, Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, both with Akademie für alte Musik Berlin under René Jacobs and Glyndebourne Festival conducted by Robin Ticciati, and in a ​“poised, elegant and persuasive” (Guardian) debut recital featuring songs by Grieg, Grøndahl, Wolf and Strauss with Alphonse Cemin (Alpha).
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Residentie Orkest The Hague & Jan Willem de Vriend – The Complete Symphonies, Vol. 4: Symphony No. 5, D. 485 – Symphony No. 6, D. 589 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Residentie Orkest The Hague & Jan Willem de Vriend – The Complete Symphonies, Vol. 4: Symphony No. 5, D. 485 – Symphony No. 6, D. 589 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:01:26 minutes | 564 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics

Schubert’s musical ideas sometimes bear a family resemblance to themes by Mozart, Haydn or Beethoven, but nevertheless his own style was already precociously developed. One would not mistake his Fifth Symphony of 1816 for the work of any other composer, though its difference in character from the Fourth Symphony is equally striking. Here, omitting clarinets, trumpets or timpani, Schubert uses a reduced orchestration in comparison with his previous symphonies.

Schubert began his Sixth Symphony in October 1817 and completed it in the following February. The Sixth Symphony represents a sideways step in Schubert’s symphonic development, a digression which may be explained by the phenomenal popularity of Rossini. At this time Rossini’s operas were being received with tremendous enthusiasm in Vienna. Keen to earn a living from his compositions, Schubert now emulated aspects of the style which was enjoying such vogue.

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Jan Willem de Vriend & Residentie Orkest The Hague – Schubert: The Complete Symphonies Vol. 3: Symphony No.9, D.944 (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Jan Willem de Vriend & Residentie Orkest The Hague – Schubert: The Complete Symphonies Vol. 3: Symphony No.9, D.944 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 57:08 minutes | 529 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics

For about 150 years it was believed that Schubert composed his Ninth Symphony in 1828, not long before his death but, musical scholarship being a continuous process, this theory was later disproved. It was discovered in the late 20th century that in fact he composed most of this work three years earlier and revised it in 1826 and 1827. Following a period of poor health, 1825 was a better year for Schubert, while his finances were also improved.

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Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Jan Willem de Vriend – J.S. Bach: Christmas Oratorio (2006) DSF DSD64

Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Jan Willem de Vriend – J.S. Bach: Christmas Oratorio (2006)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82 MHz | Time – 72:01 + 66:56 minutes | 5,48 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover |  © Challenge Records

Jan Willem de Vriend shares his thoughts on the Christmas Oratorio:
‘The Combattimento Consort Amsterdam has always performed the complete Christmas Oratorio with only two exceptions. On these two occasions the concert hall did not want a complete performance and the choice was left to us which movements to leave out. However, this is in fact an impossible choice, as in my view the work forms a single entity. So, it has happened on occasion that we have performed four cantatas. And even though prior to the concert we thought that on the one hand it would be fine to finish earlier, as it turned out — and I think I can speak for all my colleagues — after the performance we felt it a great pity after all, not to have included those two cantatas. During a performance of the complete cycle we have become accustomed to pausing between each cantata, to insert just a short break of around five minutes before beginning the following cantata. Incidentally, this is just one of the ways to divide up the work; I could also imagine that the cycle could be spread out, that one decides: “This morning I will perform one, then this evening another, with another cantata the following day.” Nevertheless, the point is that even when a performance is spread out over a number of days, as happened in Bach’s time, the work still continues to function as a unified whole. I am absolutely convinced that the churchgoers of the time had a far greater retention of the music, that the music remained more firmly entrenched in their memory until the following church service. Just compare how it is these days. After the concert, you may be sitting in your car and you switch on the radio to hear if there are any traffic jams reported, so you keep hearing fragments of music and as a result of this a large part of your recent musical experience is erased. I myself am glad that after performing a work it stays in my head for some time. Perhaps this was much more often the case in those days. As far as this is concerned, the effect of such a cantata would have been far stronger and of longer duration back then. Something similar also applies in the case of the various tonalities. In view of the fact that even temperament was nowhere near as widely in use in those days, a much greater differentiation was experienced between the various keys with their individual characteristics. With the advent of modern tuning, this entire sensibility to the different keys has vanished.’

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The Hague Philharmonic, Jan Willem de Vriend – Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/352,8kHz]

The Hague Philharmonic, Jan Willem de Vriend – Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 (2016)
Digital eXtreme Definition FLAC Stereo (tracks) 24-bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 01:01:23 minutes | 3,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: spiritofturtle.com | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records

The premiere of Ein deutsches Requiem, on Good Friday 1868, represented a final breakthrough as a composer for the then 34 year-old Brahms. The renowned critic Eduard Hanslick wrote: “Nothing that measures up to Brahms’ Requiem has been composed since Bach’s B minor Mass and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.” The work was universally thought to confirm Schumann’s 1853 prophecy to the effect that Brahms would become one of Germany’s greatest composers.
Schumann’s early, tragic death in 1856 was Brahms’ initial inspiration for the Requiem. From their first meeting in 1853, Brahms had become almost an adoptive child of Robert and Clara Schumann. A close friendship developed between the mature forty year-old Robert and the youthful, personable Johannes — as did a lifelong love of Johannes for Clara. Robert encouraged the youngster to study the Bible and the old masters. This led to Brahms becoming acquainted with the music of Bach. Also, in 1854, he wrote a work that would remain uncompleted but later form the kernel of his Requiem.

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Hannes Minnaar, Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Jan Willem de Vriend – Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 (2017) [DSF DSD128 + Hi-Res FLAC]

Hannes Minnaar, Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Jan Willem de Vriend – Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 (2017)
DSF Stereo DSD128/5.64 MHz | Time – 00:34:38 minutes | 2,73 GB
Digital eXtreme Definition FLAC Surround 5.1 (tracks) 24-bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 00:34:38 minutes | 4,26 GB
Digital eXtreme Definition FLAC Stereo (tracks) 24-bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 05:40:43 minutes | 1,74 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: spiritofturtle.com | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings

The missing link. Hannes Minnaar’s release of the beginning and end phases (numbers 1 & 2 and 4 & 5 respectively) of Beethoven’s piano concertos is now ‘followed’ by No. 3. It forms a link in another sense as well. The first concertos: replete with youth, sparkling, often even rambunctious; the last two both more mature and more heroic. And Piano Concerto No. 3 then? In part still building on his youth (Beethoven was around 30 when he wrote it), this is the first one where we hear heroism. Might has become the central theme.

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The Hague Philharmonic, Jan Willem de Vriend – Brahms: Serenade No. 1 & Variations on a Theme by Haydn (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/352,8kHz]

The Hague Philharmonic, Jan Willem de Vriend – Brahms: Serenade No. 1 & Variations on a Theme by Haydn (2016)
Digital eXtreme Definition FLAC Stereo (tracks) 24-bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 01:03:09 minutes | 3,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: spiritofturtle.com | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records

In the nineteenth century, the old principality of Lippe-Detmold lay hidden away on the edge of the Teutoburg Forest, which at that time was still inaccessible to the outside world by train and where paper money had yet to be introduced. Prince Leopold III resided at the castle dating from the Renaissance. His court still showed many traces of the protocol observed in the eighteenth century, and it goes without saying that music thus played an important role there. Leopold himself loved to sing, and his sister Princess Friederike was a competent pianist.
Johannes Brahms was offered a post at the court in 1857. It was an attractive offer — he would be paid a good salary simply for being present during the last three months of the year, conducting choral concerts, performing as a soloist with the court orchestra and playing in the prince’s private chamber ensemble. He would also give piano lessons to the princess. The young Brahms would have plenty of time to compose and, not least, to take long walks in the woods. Here Brahms could relax after a particularly trying and emotional period in his life.

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Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Jan Willem de Vriend – Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 (2014) DSF DSD128

Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Jan Willem de Vriend – Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 (2014)
DSF Stereo DSD128/5.64 MHz | Time – 56:30 minutes | 4,46 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover |  © Challenge Records

It was only when he reached Naples in April 1831 — after almost a year of his journey — that Italy began to seep its way into Mendelssohn’s music. Naples also called a halt to the pleasures of travelling. The weather was dreadful, with continual rain, so it was better to remain indoors. Mendelssohn used his ‘free time’ for a new symphony in the vibrant key of A major, the Italian. It seems to have fl owed from his pen with consummate ease, although he was only to complete the work some two years later, in Berlin, when his journey to Paestum on the Gulf of Salerno was far in his past.

The Italian is a real party piece. This was certainly the view following the work’s premiere in London on 13 May 1833, given by the Philharmonic Society. (Mendelssohn was highly acclaimed in London, where he had been commissioned to produce a new symphony). This makes it all the more remarkable that Mendelssohn himself described this masterpiece as having been ‘one of the most bitter moments of my entire career’, fretting, for years to come, about whether he ought to rewrite the second, third and fourth movements.

The opening Allegro vivace abounds with Mediterranean exuberance. The slow movement probably depicts a religious procession, witnessed by the composer in Naples. The third movement — Con moto moderato — seems to have little in the way of Italian infl uence. Rather one might imagine oneself in the shade of Germanic limes, beech and pine trees, Biedermeier-style. But the fi nale is drawn directly from Italian folk life: an irresistible, whirling dance to the rhythmic beat of the saltarello.

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Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Jan Willem de Vriend – Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 (2014) DSF DSD128

Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Jan Willem de Vriend – Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 (2014)
DSF Stereo DSD128/5.64 MHz | Time – 01:09:43 minutes | 5,5 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover |  © Challenge Records

“What is particularly amazing about the Mendelssohn symphonies is the fact that he is both harking back to old masters like Bach, and, as a child of his time, looking ahead. Especially his Italian and Scottish symphonies are pointing at the future, since, in my opinion, Mendelssohn lived in the era of discovery, of the Wanderer. Goethe came up with his young Werther, a guy who went away to discover the world and upon returning nothing looked the same. It’s a bit like the Wanderer in the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich: the sea, the valley, the hills, the light — everything looked new, fresh and different. Mendelssohn was such a Wanderer. He had read Goethe, so he travelled a lot. He went to Scotland, Italy and England where he absorbed the newness of it all. And that is exactly what you can hear in his music: astonishment, translated into music using harmonies we knew but which in his hands sounded completely fresh and new. Having said that, you can also hear an old-school musical approach. Mendelssohn sometimes uses fugues or chorales we know from older styles. He was the first to bring back those trustworthy techniques — and that, in itself, was also new. He took those techniques on a journey and that i that his music isn’t being played more often. There are Beethoven, Brahms or Schumann programs all over the place, but where is Mendelssohn? Let me repeat: where is Mendelssohn?”

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Lisa Larsson, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Jan Willem de Vriend – Ladies First! Opera arias by Joseph Haydn (2013) DSF DSD128

Lisa Larsson, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Jan Willem de Vriend – Ladies First! Opera arias by Joseph Haydn (2013)
DSF Stereo DSD128/5.64 MHz | Time – 01:03:07 minutes | 4,98 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover |  © Challenge Records

The operas of Joseph Haydn are far less known today than those of his contemporaries Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714 — 1787) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 -1791). In 1790 Haydn was generally considered the most famous composer of his age, but the relative obscurity of his operas in comparison with his other works today was also the case in the 18th century. How is it possible that Haydn’s operas are still relatively unknown, despite a remark Empress Maria Theresia expressed upon hearing Haydn’s L’ Infeldelta Delusa in 1773; “If I want to hear good opera, I am going to Esterhaza!”

Between 1761 and 1790 Haydn was in the employment of Prince Paul von Esterhazy and his son and successor Prince Nikolaus, both passionate music lovers. From 1766 onwards, Haydn wrote, in addition to composing chamber music and symphonies, four Italian comedies, six German Singspiele and numerous Italian operas for his employers of the Esterhazy dynasty. Furthermore he also supervised all musical activities at the court including yearly performances of more than 150 operas, many composed by his contemporaries. As Kapellmeister Haydn was not only responsible for musical direction of the operas but also for staging, contracting the singers and occasionally writing an extra aria as required, like the aria “Quando la rosa”. This aria was included in the performance of Guiseppe Anfossi’s opera La Metilde Ritrovata (1773).

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