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"Without music, life would be a blank to me." - Jane Austen

Jan Willem de Vriend, designated “a godsend from the Netherlands” by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, is driven by the pioneering spirit of historically informed perfomance practice. As music director of the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, which he founded in 1982, he specialised in repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries, reviving a wealth of rarely heard works through historically informed performances on modern instruments, praised by Gramophone magazine for their “technical finesse and a lively feeling for characterization”.
An award-winner for his creative contribution to classical music, Jan Willem de Vriend has more than 50,000 followers on Spotify and is in demand as a conductor around the world, appearing regularly with such orchestras as the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Belgian National Orchestra, Tonhalle Zurich, Orchestre National de Lyon, Bergen Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, the symphony orchestras of Netherlands Radio and Hessischer Rundfunk (Frankfurt Radio Symphony), Melbourne Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic. He is Principal Conductor Designate of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Stuttgart Philharmonic and Orchestre National de Lille, and former Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya and the Brabant Orchestra.
For the Challenge Classics label, de Vriend and the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra have recorded the complete Mendelssohn symphonies and all Beethoven’s symphonies and concertos with, among others, pianist Hannes Minnaar and violinist Liza Ferschtman. De Vriend’s interpretation of the Symphony No 7 prompted Classic FM to admire “a bounding flair that does real justice to the composer’s capacity for joy”. A further landmark of his recorded catalogue is his complete recording of the Schubert symphonies with the Residentie Orkest Den Haag.
De Vriend’s collaborative spirit is equally evident in his work for the stage, notably with opera director Eva Buchmann and Combattimento Consort Amsterdam. In addition to works by Monteverdi, Haydn, Handel and Telemann, their productions in Europe and the USA have included staged versions of Bach’s ‘Hunting’ and ‘Coffee’ Cantatas at the Bachfest Leipzig, and operas by Mozart, Rossini, Verdi and Cherubini, among them Mozart’s Don Giovanni und Rossini’s La gazzetta, both toured in Switzerland. De Vriend has also conducted operatic productions in Amsterdam (with the Nederlandse Reisopera), Barcelona, Strasbourg, Lucerne, Schwetzingen and Bergen.

Featured on

Robert Schumann
Schumann Symphonies 1 & 2
Stavanger Symphony Orchestra | Jan Willem de Vriend
Ludwig van Beethoven
The Complete Piano Concertos (re-issue)
Hannes Minnaar | Jan Willem de Vriend | The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concertos Nos. 23 & 14
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra | Dejan Lazić | Jan Willem de Vriend
Franz Schubert
The Complete Symphonies Vol. 4 Symphony No. 5 D. 485 | Symphony No. 6 D. 589
Residentie Orkest The Hague / Jan Willem de Vriend
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Georg Friedrich Händel
Arias and Overtures
Stavanger Symphony Orchestra / Jan Willem de Vriend / Mari Eriksmoen
Ludwig van Beethoven
Complete Symphonies & Concertos (box set)
The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra / Jan Willem de Vriend
Franz Schubert
The Complete Symphonies Vol. 3 Symphony No.9, D.944
Residentie Orkest The Hague / Jan Willem de Vriend
Ludwig van Beethoven
Complete Works for Piano Trio (box set)
Van Baerle Trio
Ludwig van Beethoven
Complete Works for Piano Trio vol. 5
Van Baerle Trio | Residentie Orkest The Hague
Franz Schubert
The Complete Symphonies Vol. 2 Symphony No.1, D.82 / Symphony No.3 D.200 / Symphony No.8 D.759
Residentie Orkest The Hague / Jan Willem de Vriend
Religious Tetralogy
Antwerp Symphony Orchestra
Franz Schubert
The Complete Symphonies Vol. 1 Symphony No. 2 D. 125 / Symphony No. 4 D. 417
Residentie Orkest The Hague / Jan Willem de Vriend
The Complete Piano Concertos
Hannes Minnaar / Jan Willem de Vriend / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 3
Hannes Minnaar / Jan Willem de Vriend / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Johannes Brahms
Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45
Jan Willem de Vriend
Antonio Vivaldi
The Four Seasons
Jaap van Zweden
Complete Symphonies
Jan Willem de Vriend / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Johannes Brahms
Serenade no. 1 / Variations on a Theme by Haydn
Residentie Orkest The Hague
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concertos nos. 1 & 2
Hannes Minnaar / Jan Willem de Vriend / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Piano Concertos 4 & 5
Hannes Minnaar / Jan Willem de Vriend / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Felix Mendelssohn
Symphonies nos. 4 & 5
Jan Willem de Vriend / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Felix Mendelssohn
Complete Symphonies vol. 2: Symphony nos.1 & 3
The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra / Jan Willem de Vriend
Joseph Haydn
Ladies First! Opera arias by Joseph Haydn
Lisa Larsson & Combattimento Consort Amsterdam
Recordings
Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Symphony no. 2 ('Lobgesang')
Jan Willem de Vriend / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra / Choir Consensus Vocalis
Ludwig van Beethoven
Triple Concerto & Archduke Trio
Storioni Trio / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra / Jan Willem de Vriend
Concerti grossi op. 6
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam / Jan Willem de Vriend
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony no. 9 (Complete symphonies vol. 5)
Jan Willem de Vriend / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphonies nos. 2 & 3 (Complete Symphonies Vol. 4)
Jan Willem de Vriend / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphonies nos. 7 & 8 (Complete symphonies vol. 3)
Jan Willem de Vriend / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphonies nos. 1 & 5 (Complete symphonies vol.2)
Jan Willem de Vriend / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Violin Concerto & Romances
Liza Ferschtman / Jan Willem de Vriend / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Antonio Vivaldi
Concertos for oboe, strings & basso continuo
Pauline Oostenrijk / Jan Willem de Vriend / Baroque Academy of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphonies nos. 4 & 6 (Complete Symphonies vol.1)
Jan Willem de Vriend / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Symphony no. 1 (Hamburg 1893 version)
Netherlands Symphony Orchestra / Jan Willem de Vriend
Violin Concertos 1 & 2
The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra / Rudolf Koelman / Jan Willem de Vriend
Joseph Haydn
Divertimenti
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam
Various composers
Vriend en Strijd
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam
Brandenburg Concertos
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam
Egmont / Wellingtons Sieg
Orkest van het Oosten / The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Johann Sebastian Bach
Weihnachts-Oratorium
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam
Johann Sebastian Bach
Christmas Oratorio
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam
Georg Friedrich Händel
Händel: Agrippina
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam
La Resurrezione
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam
Concerti Grossi op. 3
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber
Soldiers, Gypsies, Farmers and a Night Watchman
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam
Georg Friedrich Händel
La Resurrezione
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam
Concerto Di Amsterdam
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam
Ludwig van Beethoven
Fidelio
Frank Groothof & Erna Sassen
Sonatae tam aris quam aulis servien
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam

Videos

Jan Willem de Vriend short interview (in Dutch)
Jan Willem De Vriend gets Golden Record
Rudolf Koelman LIVE in Spiegelzaal: Cantabile from Opus 17 of Paganini.
Octet (Divertimenti no. 1) in G Major - Combattimento Consort Amsterdam
Jan Willem de Vriend The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra - Complete Symphonies
Jan Willem de Vriend asks 'Where is Mendelssohn?'