Item Details
Catalogue Number
:
KDC5044
Number of Discs
:
6
Format
:
CD
Other
:
Import
Product Description
The Anima Eterna Collection on Zig-Zag Territoires is here enriched by an interpretation of great importance. Armed with their experience of period-instrument performances of a varied repertoire - Classical (Mozart, Haydn), Austro-German Romantic (Brahms, Johann Strauss), Russian (Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin), and finally Ravel - the musicians of Anima Eterna come back to Beethoven with the perspective and mastery acquired as a symphony orchestra.
Jos van Immerseel has taken great care to find the correct combination of tempos, numerical forces and instruments for each symphony. ‘We know that Beethoven asked musicians very precise questions about the technical capacities of their instruments. So he knew exactly what he was doing when he pushed an instrument to the very limit of its possibilities. It’s partly the great technical difficulty that makes his music so revolutionary, but also the dramatic character this element confers on the music (and this dramatisation is further emphasised if one respects contemporary pitch standards, which were high - at least 440, if not more). That’s why it is so important to perform this music on period instruments. Modern instruments make it easier to play, and what’s more they don’t sound right, with their metal strings.’ Jos van Immerseel
This research into tempos, orchestral forces and instruments makes it possible not only to obtain a characteristic timbre, but also to push these period instruments to their technical limits and thus to rediscover something of the challenging nature of Beethoven’s music, rather as it was experienced by Hector Berlioz when he discovered it through the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire in Paris in 1828. He wrote at the time: ‘At another point on the horizon, I saw the immense Beethoven rising. The jolt this gave me was almost comparable to the one I had received from Shakespeare. He opened up a new world in music for me, just as the playwright had revealed to me a new universe in poetry.’
CD1
The Creatures of Prometheus - Overture
Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21
Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36
CD2
Symphony No. 3 in Eb Major, Op. 55 "Eroica"
Coriolan - Overture
Egmont - Overture
The Ruins of Athens - Overture
The Ruins of Athens - Marcia alla Turca
CD3
Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67
Symphony No. 4 in Bb Major, Op. 60
CD4
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 "Pastoral"
Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93
CD5
Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92
The Consecration of the House - Overture
CD6
Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125
Anima Eterna
Jos van Immerseel
JOS VAN IMMERSEEL
Biography of Jos van ImmerseelJOS VAN IMMERSEEL, a native of Antwerp, studied piano with Eugène Traey, organ with Flor Peeters, harpsichord with Kenneth Gilbert, singing with Lucie Frateur, and conducting with Daniel Sternefeld. In 1973 he won the first Paris Harpsichord Competition. He is self-taught in the disciplines of organology, rhetoric and the historic piano.
He has held teaching positions at the Scola Cantorum in Basel, the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique in Paris and the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, and gives master classes in Europe, America and Japan. In 1987 he founded the ‘Anima Eterna’ ensemble. The group, which plays historic instruments, gradually became a symphony orchestra. Jos van Immerseel has appeared as guest conductor with the Berlin Akademie für Alte Musik, the Wiener Akademie and Musica Florea Prague. He also maintains a unique collection of historical keyboard instruments, which he plays in concert.
He and Anima Eterna have taken up residence in Bruges’ new concert hall in 2003. Jos van Immerseel has made over 80 recordings (Accent, Channel Classics, Sony, etc.) on historical instruments. He has been the director of the ‘Anima Eterna Collection’ for Zig-Zag Territoires since 2002.
Anima Eterna
IN THE EARLY years, van Immerseel’s orchestra became widely known for its historical performance practice: the study of scores with an eye to textual reassessment and the use of original instruments in historically correct orchestration. This was music for connoisseurs who appreciated being offered new acces to a repertoire they thought they were already familiar with. The fact that this audience has continued to grow over the past fifteen years is not only thanks to the scientific rigour with which each project is approached, and the skill of the musicians and their director, but ultimately to what they produce: the music.
Enthusiastic praise from music-lovers has led to packed concert halls, and more recently Anima Eterna, which started out as a small baroque ensemble, has been appointed orchestra-in-residence at the new Concertgebouw Brugge.
Anima Eterna is a project orchestra which undertakes a new programme five or six times a year. This sparks off an intensive d dialogue between the musicians and the artistic director. Nothing is taken for granted, everything is up for discussion and xamination. What is written in the score, precisely? What exactly was the composer hearing at his desk, in his head? What is the ideal configuration of instruments and which conventions applied? How did a bassoon sound in those days? What opportunities for personal expression does the piece offer? All members of the group conspire together to uncover the secrets of the piece, each with his or her own expertise, instrument and personal relationship to the music. In this musical collaboration, magic is born. In the process, any possible discrepancy between artistic license and historical necessity disappears and Mozart comes into his own: the listener has the impression the composer himself can be heard at work. The music of the nineteenth century too, which is less often approached in an historical fashion than that of the Baroque, is also brought to life in Anima Eterna’s laboratory.
The symphonies of Schubert and Beethoven sound new when played by this orchestra, and the listener happily abandons the template of more than one hundred years of performance tradition in order to hear works from the ‘iron repertoire’ speak for themselves once more. In doing so, the orchestra has ‘set a trend which cannot be avoided in the future, if people want to perform nineteenth century music in a credible way.’ (Herman Baeten, Schubert zonder bril, 1997, Alamire.)
A new series of CD’s on the French label Zig-Zag Territoires will guarantee Anima Eterna an audience amongst ‘home listeners’, but whoever really wants to experience van Immerseel and his team bringing the blood back to the cheeks of Bach, Haydn and even Johann Strauss Jr., is advised to attend a live performance.
Track List
Disc 1
Beethoven:
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01． The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43 - Overture 04:32
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02． Symphony No. 1, Op. 21 24:56
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03． Symphony No. 2, Op. 36 33:07
Disc 2
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01． Symphony No. 3, Op. 55 46:39
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02． Overture "Coriolan", Op. 62 06:43
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03． Egmont, Op. 84 - Overture 07:09
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04． Die Ruinen von Athen, op. 113 - Overture 04:03
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05． Turkish March 02:00
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