But the focus, after all, is Mari Eriksmoen’s voice, and it is superb. The natural grace of the light, agile and confident soprano voice, the cultivated declamation and the fresh liveliness, but also the often moving empathy of her singing show a singer who, far from all effects, fully convinces with a stylistically confident musicality.

Jan Willem de Vriend shares with other today conductors a preference for swift tempos […] The Scherzo is thoroughly compelling.

De Vriend's incredibly fresh and pulsating interpretation resolutely corrects the old resentments…

With fluid, agile and vivid performances, Willem de Vriend and The Hague’s Residentie Orkest take a promising start into a new compete cycle of the Schubert symphonies.

I think that we have here a most promising start, doing not only justice to a composer that merits all our attention, but also satisfying all Schubert followers by putting together the various strands of vision in comprehensive settings. I’ll be looking forward to de Vriend’s account of the ‘Unfinished’ - “the sad music that makes one happy” - and ‘The Great’. But in the meantime it is a pleasure to congratulate all those participating in this first release for already lifting two of the 5 youth symphonies a cut above the rest.

Choosing his own musically very rich way, Hannes Minnaar is very well supported by Jan Willem de Vriend, and both sign an unconventionally personal account of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos, the first reference recording of this cycle in the 21st Century.

CD of the week at Radio 4 - Hannes Minnaar | Beethoven Piano Concertos

This Dutch production of Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem deserves praise for its rhythmic pulsation and its clarity. It is a felicitous interpretation. 

A realis!c sound stage and surround depth, with no disturbing noises from the audience or unwanted echoes from the walls. But with Bert van der Wolf (NorthStar Recording Services BV) in charge, that does not surprise.