The Danzas Caribenas CD contains a selection of the numerous elegant danzas, waltzes, pasillos, danzons, mazurkas and polkas from the Caribbean. The danza is generally considered to be the most exquisite and poetic form of 19thcentury Caribbean art, with the first danza being published in Havana in 1803. Traditionally, the danza consists of two or three sections. The first section can be traced back furthest in history, with it's origins in the English country dance of the 16th century. In 18th century France, country dance became contredanse, from which the cotillon and the quadrille developed. The contredanse was very much en vogue in the French colony of Saint Domingue, as Haiti was then called. After a slave rebellion in 1791, numerous French colonists fled to the Cuban province of Oriente, taking their contredanse with them and sowing it's seeds in the fertile Cuban soil. The enrichment of Hispano-Cuban culture with French colonial music at the end of the 18th century was a critical factor - the spark that induced the birth of the Caribbean danza. Henceforth, the French contredance with it's more northern and restrained character became the introduction part of the danza, while the following parts evocate the emotional exuberance of passionate Latin-Iberian chants and of African rhythms. This CD album includes danzas composed by Ignacio Cervantes from Cuba and the Curacaon composers Jan Gerard Palm, Jules Blasini, Joseph Sickman Corsen and Jacobo Palm.

The Viola is surely not the most assertive instrument among the string family. It reaches neither the extreme height of the violin nor the rumbling depth and the strength of the cello and contrabass. It's role is more integrating than leading or polarizing; and in brilliance, maneuverability and sound projection the violin wins hands down. But if a composer wants to express his or her feelings with maximum intensity and depth, he chooses the viola remarkably often. The loss of a loved one, a repressive political system, persecution and war were more than once the motivation for the composing of music with the viola as the most important voice for expressing the underlying emotions. The dark, somewhat veiled sound of the instrument makes it particularly suited to such a role. On this album, the second of two, we have recorded Mendelssohn, Gal, Shostakovich and Hindemith. Compositions for viola and piano in which oppression, both personal and political, has played, directly or indirectly, an unmistakable role.

Internationally respected musicians Daniel Palmizio (viola) and Nicolas van Poucke (piano) join forces in a double-album featuring Bach’s complete gamba sonatas and Brahms two clarinet sonatas. Palmizio (recently described as a player of ‘instrumental mastery’ characterized by ‘unselfconscious refinement’) and Van Poucke (‘a truly poetic musician’) met at a festival in Zeeland, The Netherlands and have since worked together for several years. This album is the fruit of a deep friendship and shared love for music. Their approach to the music of both Bach and Brahms is equally steeped in tradition of the virtuosos of the golden era as it is forward looking and original. On a 17th century Testore (equipped with open gut strings) and a modern Steinway, Palmizio and Van Poucke, uncompromising in expressive intensity and counter-punctual clarity, shine a new bright light on sonatas by Bach and Brahms.

The music in this programme, featuring two vocal top soloists, Claron McFadden and Nora Fischer, reigns from the turn of the 16th to the 17th century, the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque era, a musically interesting and exciting time! Claudio Monteverdi is without any doubt the biggest Stella Lucente (shining star) of this album. He has always been considered the great master of this period and the title of the album could have been Monteverdi and his time. The highest goal is to touch the listener’s soul. This leads, among other things, to an enormous amount of publications with compositions for solo voice, two sopranos and basso continuo and, subsequently, the birth of the opera. Many musicians work in the courts of the great city-states (such as Ferrara, Florence, Mantua, Venice) and the papal residence in Rome. The Duke of Ferrara employs three sopranos under the name Concerto delle Donne. They are the pride of the court and perform in special concerts attended only by high-ranking courtiers and important guests. Composers are inspired by them, Luzzaschi in particular, who worked as the musical director at the same court. Not only were they highly skilled singers, they were also adept at playing various instruments, some of which you can hear on this album; the harp, viola da gamba and guitar.

Satie: Works for Piano

This recording is a road trip through the last 50 years of minimalist and ambient piano music. From the early sound tapestries of minimalists Philip Glass and John Adams, via David Lang and Arvo Part who combine repetition with melody and harmonic colors, to the atmospheric and quiet worlds of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Max Richter and Nils Frahm, what captivates the listener on these recordings is a sense of ambience, an evocation of space. Feico Deutekom breathes life and shape into these works, many of which have a delicately melancholy tone. He is able to convey both the rhythmic complexity and the panoramic quality of this music, where silence and the spaces lingering between the notes are often as important as the notes themselves. This release includes the world premiere recording of Philip Glass's Mishima Sonata, an arrangement that Feico Deutekom made with permission of the composer of three movements from the movie soundtrack of Mishima, originally composed for strings.

Spooky sounds and ghostly wailings are usually what come to mind when people imagine the sound of the theremin. With “Air Électrique”, Thorwald Jorgensen and Kamilla Bystrova go beyond the novelty of the theremin and let the music speak for itself. With the premier recording of Lera Auerbach’s “10 Preludes for theremin and piano”, the standard of the album is set. This compositional tour-de-force presents colourful melodic music which exploits the unique characteristics of both the theremin and the piano. The angular modernism of Lydia Kavina’s “Suite for theremin and piano” and Olesya Rostovskaya’s haunting “Juliet” show more of the theremin’s unrivalled sonic possibilities, clearly illustrating what is possible with this combination of instruments. The album also presents two chamber music pieces. The first is the world premiere of Joseph Schillinger’s “Bury, Bury me Wind”, in which Thorwald and Kamilla are joined by mezzo soprano, Itzel Medecigo. The other is the spectacular “Fantasy for theremin, xylophone and piano” by Valery Beluntsov, in which Thorwald plays not only the theremin but also the virtuosic xylophone part. All in all “Air Électrique” is an album for both lovers of the theremin and piano, and lovers of music in general.

The CD Bach Bo�ly and Beekman was recorded on the famous de Rijckere organ in the Oostkerk at Middelburg, located only 300 yards from the studio. It stands to reason that Beekman plays Bach, but other compositions include Bo�ly, B�hm, Widor, Van Noordt and some of his own.

Manneke's intention and motivation to write a substantial piano work were partly inspired by six eminent musicians, to each of whom he dedicated a part: Ralph van Raat [I], Geoffrey Madge [II], Kelvin Grout [III], Hannes Minnaar [IV], Jelena Bazova [V] and Dani�l Kramer [VI]. Over time, Daan Manneke has designed a composition concept that has fascinated and inspired him for many years. The Archipel concept: 'islands' located close to each other, each with their individual manner of existence. Through exchanges and connections, they sometimes more or less lose their individuality and acquire a hybrid character. This osmosis can generate new properties and dynamics. Conversely, islands can become isolated, decay or disappear entirely. Grote Archipel consists of six parts, which can also be performed separately. Rather than a decorative-illustrative atmospheric drawing, it is an abstract work based on universal situations. Meaningful metaphors include approaching-disappearing, disintegrating-connecting, status quo, variety and, always, the iso-rhythmic clock loops. Manneke's key motto is s p a c e. Grote Archipel is a tribute to the Province of Zeeland: Luctor et Emergo!

In Dowland’s words: “ingenuous profession of Musicke, which from my childhoode I have ever aymed at,... the better to attain so excellent a science”. Mike Fentross achieves this “divine science of musicke” by wooing his audience by “speaking harmony” on his sweet lute. His art entwines harmony and poetry, albeit often a melancholic art, which is then framed by the proportions of rhythm. His art teaches, stirs and delights the heart and soul of his honorable listeners in profound ways. Mike Fentross first studied with Toyohiko Satoh at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, then with Nigel North and José Miguel Moreno. He has built a solid reputation as a “continuist”, playing in renowned orchestras like Les Arts Florissants, and is much in demand in his country as well as abroad. He plays and records regularly with great European ensembles such as Capriccio Stravagante, Les Arts Florissants, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, the Harp Consort, the New London Consort and Al Ayre Espanol. In 1991 he founded La Sfera Armoniosa, a group devoted to the performance of 17th-century music. Since 1996 Mike Fentross is guest professor at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

Laula! is the third album by Mike Fentross and Maarten Ornstein; following their debut duo album, Oblivion Soave and having worked with Rima Khcheich on the second album Ombre de Mon Amant, they are once again collaborating with an extraordinary singer - the Estonian mezzo-soprano Kadri Tegelmann. She is not only a superb interpreter of the Baroque music, as featured here, but she also introduced Maarten and Mike to the deep and rich tradition of Baltic vocal music with its many folksongs, hymns and chants. Choosing the repertoire for this new album, they learned that many -if not most- Estonian folksongs are about events from the cycle of life, such as birth, marriage, lullabies, leaving and returning home, and death. These universal themes have been used in art for centuries all over the world, and they are the basis for the music on this album too. For each of the Estonian folksongs featured here they have found an equivalent from the Baroque era, and where possible paired the songs. Thus Girolamo Kapsperger’s beautiful lullaby Filglio Dormi is paired with Lauliku lapsepõli, an old Estonian song about childhood memories. Elsewhere Une Sulased is carefully woven into Tarquinio Merula’s monumental Canzonetta spirituale Sopra alla nanna. The lyrics of both songs are about the darker side of sleep, dreams, and nightmares. Mike and Maarten are particularly fond of the arrangement for Kurb Laulik, essentially a song about tears and crying so delicately sung by Kadri. In the background Mike and Maarten play Flow my tears by John Dowland, both as an accompaniment to Kadri and as a distant memory to Oblivion Soave, their first album on Zefir Records.

Leen de Broekert present his own Van Vulpen organ in the Abbey in Middelburg with adventurous music. With music by Buxtehude, B�hm, Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Bo�ly. Included on this CD: Aria: La Capricciosa is by far Buxtehude's most extended composition for keyboard instrument. In 32 variations the composer unleashes his imagination on the Bergamasca, a 15th-century dance-tune from the region of Bergamo. Many 16th- and 17th - century composers took the melody and/or harmonic scheme of the Bergamasca as a starting point for a series of variations. Perhaps, being a manualiter work, La Capricciosa is firstly conceived for the harpsichord. However, if one concentrates on the variations written in an idiom appropriate for the organ, the variations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 15, 20, 19, 24, 29, 30, 13 and 1 may be convincingly arranged as a cycle of 16 parts. Whilst still a boy of fourteen, Felix Mendelssohn composed the Ostinato in C minor. It is obvious that he must have modeled this work on Bach's Passacaglia in C minor. As towards the end of the piece Mendelssohn's writing seems to have become more and more sketchy, the danger of an anti-climax looms. By putting, where necessary, some flesh on the bare bones of Mendelssohn's composition, Leen de Broekert tried to bring the work to a convincing culmination. He also added a short introduction. Leen de Broekert (1949-2009) studied Piano and Organ at the Royal Academy of Music in The Hague. He graduated in both subjects. He also qualified as a harpsichord player and fortepianist with Jos van Immerseel. In 1979 he was one of the laureates of the International Contest for Organ in Bruges, with an honourable citation for his Interpretation of Bach. As a fortepianist and organist he was frequently asked for concerts in Germany as well as in Holland. He also performed in England, France, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Italy and Switzerland and recorded several CDs both on pianoforte and organ. Leen de Broekert was the organist of the Koorkerk (Abbey church) in Middelburg. He died, at the age of sixty, after a short illness, in Middelburg on 29 July 2009.

Almost all major composers have written important transcriptions, some even reaching the status of a masterpiece. Transcriptions often reflect the period in which they were written. The Liszt-Bach transcriptions being very different from the masterly Bach Chaconne for
violin and his choral preludes by Ferruccio Busoni. Liszt is basically urtext-true in his Bach and Beethoven transcriptions, while Busoni incorporated in his transcriptions not only the text of the work but also the total acoustical end result. 

Five classically trained musicians – four singers and a pianist – with a passion for Yiddish music. They spent the past four years on our project of Yiddish folk song arrangements by “classical” composers and recorded the album Akh, nit gut! last summer with the Dutch label Zefir Records. Point of departure is Dmitri Shostakovich’s song cycle “From Jewish Folk Poetry” for soprano, mezzo-soprano and tenor – but there is a twist to it: We sing the songs with the original Yiddish texts! The album further consists of songs by the father of the New Jewish School: Joel Engel. Engel’s songs have been arranged by British composer / singer Tyrone Landau who also sings the tenor parts.

During 2021's lockdown, pianist Maurice Lammerts van Bueren and Jakko van der Heijden from Zefir Records joined forces in a special project: for more than a year, they posted one mazurka by Fr�d�ric Chopin on their YouTube channel 'The Mazurki Project' every week. Now that the project has come to an end, all 57 mazurkas are released in a double album. Maurice Lammerts van Bueren about his passion for this particular genre: "Since my childhood, I heard Chopin's mazurkas: live, when my mother played them on our piano in the living room, and through the speakers, when Artur Rubinstein's 1967 recording enchanted my eardrums. It made me fall in love not only with Rubinstein's playing, but also with Chopin's music and the sound of a Steinway grand piano. At the age of eleven, I won my first competition with a mazurka and now, almost forty years later, the mazurkas keep fascinating me. The genre accompanied Chopin all his life: he wrote his first mazurkas as a teenager, while his last mazurka was his ultimate piece."