Release Mahler Symphony no 1 (Hamburg 1893 edition)

CD Mahler's Symphony no 1 Hamburg 1893 Version
Challenge records, 2010
Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
 
Reviews:
Gramophone: "Don't miss this one."

"the Dutch conductor's emphasis on clarity of articulation, helped by excellent sound, allows the unusual aspects of the instrumentation to register more clearly than in that older, more romantic reading"

"All fascinating stuff and unlikely to be trumped by comparable issue"

"you won't be disappointed"

"The music-making is winningly fresh and vigorous"
(David Gutman, June 2010)  

Orkest van het Oosten

Beethoven’s Seventh is a work of true tempestuousness, but then in ideally sublimated form. The conductor Jan Willem de Vriend rendered this monumental dance of liberty in circumspect yet angular fashion. Thanks to the sophisticated articulation and dynamics, the  structure was of glass-like transparency. The alert interchange of individual orchestral lines merged into a single voice that resonated to the very marrow, particularly in the funeral march (Allegretto). The soft shimmer of the build-up of the fugato was the epitome of subtle discernment. In the compressed and concentrated emotion of this Seventh Symphony we hear the voice not of ‘Beethoven the Titan’ but of Beethoven the brilliant, impassioned and disciplined craftsman.

Het Concertgebouworkest

Jan Willem de Vriend, an Amsterdammer based in Enschede (he is principal conductor of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra), made his debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra on Thursday evening. The result was remarkable. Under his baton the orchestra sounded not simply like the best orchestra in the world, as it does on a normal working day, or like the best opera orchestra in the world, as it did under Riccardo Chailly and Mariss Jansons in the pit of the Amsterdam Music Theatre, but like the best early music orchestra in the world.
Het Parool  

In the hands of 48 RCO members playing as friends of Vriend [Schubert’s Fifth Symphony], subtly phrased and illuminated throughout, became Schubert’s Unforgettable Symphony.
De Volkskrant

L’Orchestre de Chambre de Neuchâtel

The ovation for the last piece on the programme—Mozart’s renowned Symphony no. 39 in E flat major—was entirely justified. In the introduction De Vriend goes with Mozart all the way, who writes incredible dissonants there, decreasing the tempo to an unusual, but perfectly fitting, degree.

Christmas Oratorio

The homogeneity of the sound is of an extraordinary quality.
Het Parool   One of the best recordings ever to have been made of this work.
De Telegraaf  

The choir and the orchestra are wonderfully in balance; the splendour and vigour of the music is sustained throughout, as is the rhythmical precision.
Hifi.nl  

This exquisite recording of these six cantatas is cause for delight.
Haarlems Dagblad

Barcelona Gran Teatre del Liceu

The orchestra, carefully balanced and well conducted by the efficient Jan Willem de Vriend, played Händel's concerti grossi in-between the vocal numbers.