Jos Smolders – Textuur 1 [number 1 9]

Esc.rec. is a small, critically acclaimed record label for adventurous music, founded in 2004 by Harco Rutgers in Deventer, NL.

After a year of celebrations of his seventieth birthday, including several recordings of orchestral music, Jos Van Immerseel returns to chamber music and the accompaniment of young talents, two absolute priorities for him. In Chouchane Siranossian he has found a worthy partner, as gifted on the modern violin as she is on the Baroque instrument, a pupil of Tibor Varga, then of Zakhar Bron, as well as a disciple of Reinhard Goebel, whose first recording, on the Oehms label, attracted great attention (winning a ‘Diapason Découverte’). Here it is the Baroque violinist who engages in dialogue with the harpsichord of Jos Van Immerseel in a Franco-Italian programme juxtaposing the music of the ‘Angel’ Leclair and the ‘Devil’ Locatelli, not forgetting Tartini’s famous ‘Devil’s Trill’ Sonata . . . Indeed, all this music is ‘devilishly’ difficult to play, but the Franco-Armenian violinist shows perfect mastery of it, combined with great inventiveness.

This album features the works of German Romantic composer Max Reger by the Woergas Ensemble, which has made numerous rediscoveries in medieval and Renaissance polyphonic music over the past 50 years. Led by choral work specialist Paul van Nervel, the ensemble departs from the usual repertoire of ancient music to explore Reger's vocal music. Max Reger (1873-1916) is a composer best known for his symphonies and organ works, but his vocal music has been largely ignored.

On this collection of three albums, Jos van Immerseel performs the music by seven masters of 18th century Paris on three historical harpsichords - some of the finest jewels in the Musée de la musique of Philharmonie de Paris: Jean-Henri Hemsch harpsichord, 1761; Ruckers-Taskin harpsichord, 1646/1780; Goujon harpsichord, 1749, restored by Swanen in 1784. Jos van Immerseel, who reappears on Channel Classics Records where he released his first recordings in the 1990s, pays homage to some of the composers who have accompanied him since the beginning of his prestigious career as a harpsichordist. The composers featured on these albums are often mentioned in the same breath, yet each has their own and completely unique style. In Jos van Immerseel's words: "Louis Marchand has whimsical and surprising turns, François Couperin is known for musical regality, Jean-Philippe Rameau portrays theatrical and folk influences, Antoine Forqueray speaks a daring language of the devil's gamba, Jacques Duphly makes the harpsichord sing, Claude Balbastre is a revolutionary challenger, and Armand-Louis Couperin wavers between brilliance and parting pain".

On this collection of three albums, Jos van Immerseel performs the music by seven masters of 18th century Paris on three historical harpsichords - some of the finest jewels in the Musée de la musique of Philharmonie de Paris: Jean-Henri Hemsch harpsichord, 1761; Ruckers-Taskin harpsichord, 1646/1780; Goujon harpsichord, 1749, restored by Swanen in 1784. Jos van Immerseel, who reappears on Channel Classics Records where he released his first recordings in the 1990s, pays homage to some of the composers who have accompanied him since the beginning of his prestigious career as a harpsichordist. The composers featured on these albums are often mentioned in the same breath, yet each has their own and completely unique style. In Jos van Immerseel's words: "Louis Marchand has whimsical and surprising turns, François Couperin is known for musical regality, Jean-Philippe Rameau portrays theatrical and folk influences, Antoine Forqueray speaks a daring language of the devil's gamba, Jacques Duphly makes the harpsichord sing, Claude Balbastre is a revolutionary challenger, and Armand-Louis Couperin wavers between brilliance and parting pain".

On this collection of three albums, Jos van Immerseel performs the music by seven masters of 18th century Paris on three historical harpsichords - some of the finest jewels in the Musée de la musique of Philharmonie de Paris: Jean-Henri Hemsch harpsichord, 1761; Ruckers-Taskin harpsichord, 1646/1780; Goujon harpsichord, 1749, restored by Swanen in 1784. Jos van Immerseel, who reappears on Channel Classics Records where he released his first recordings in the 1990s, pays homage to some of the composers who have accompanied him since the beginning of his prestigious career as a harpsichordist. The composers featured on these albums are often mentioned in the same breath, yet each has their own and completely unique style. In Jos van Immerseel's words: "Louis Marchand has whimsical and surprising turns, François Couperin is known for musical regality, Jean-Philippe Rameau portrays theatrical and folk influences, Antoine Forqueray speaks a daring language of the devil's gamba, Jacques Duphly makes the harpsichord sing, Claude Balbastre is a revolutionary challenger, and Armand-Louis Couperin wavers between brilliance and parting pain".