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.

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.

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.

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.