HENDRIK ANDRIESSEN (1892-1981): Violin Concerto, Concertino for Cello and Orchestra, Concertino for Oboe and String Orchestra, Canzona for Cello and Orchestra (Tinta S. Von Altenstadt [violin], Michael Müller [cello], Henk Swinnen [oboe], Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra; Thierry Fischer), Chromatic Variations for Flute, Oboe, Colin, Cello andOrchestra, Variations and Fugue on a theme by Kuhnau and Variations on a theme by Couperin for Flute, Harp and Orchestra, Miroir de Peine, Magna res est amor and Fiat Domine for Soprano and Orchestra (Roberta Alexander [soprano] and other performers, Netherlands RCO; David Porcelijn).
Catalogue Number: 08X010
Label: Brilliant Classics
Reference: 96105
Format: CD
Price: $11.98
Description: The opulent soundworld of a Dutch late-Romantic master, still too little known outside his native country. Rarefied spirituality and refined sensuousness are the hallmarks of Andriessen's idiom, which offers an ethereal synthesis of Franckian chromaticism with an individual interpretation of classical forms and church modes. The album’s headline work is Miroir de peine, a languorous song-cycle to Henri Vangeon’s poems of religious ecstasy describing the suffering of Christ from the perspective of the Virgin Mary which has attracted the advocacy of great sopranos from Elly Ameling to Christiane Stotijn. The Violin Concerto (1968-9) is still essentially couched in a Romantic vein, but shaded with more 20th-century accents of tonal anxiety, akin to Vaughan Williams and Casella in the 1930s. Any listener for whom conservatism is not a dirty word will relish becoming acquainted with Andriessen’s powerful expressive voice. 2 CDs. Original 1992 and 1999 NM Classics releases.