THE PRESS ABOUT CONCERTS TOGETHER WITH OTHER MUSICIANS
About Ludi Musici with Susanne Braumann and Bernard Winsemius
Where does the influence of the performers start, and where does that of the composers end? The colours of recorders, gamba and organ make a beautiful blend. Moreover these six people showed that making music together is more than merely mixing instruments. They created a pleasant atmosphere for all these Suites and Canzonas, which were interpreted with a full richness of sound. The musicians’ accurate playing showed an extremely high level of perfection. But above all, the audience of Ludi Musici could observe the pleasure of making music. The performers were clearly enjoying the concert and they constantly reacted to each other’s contributions. There was a sense of mutual congeniality in which the music was transported to higher spheres.
(De Stentor, January 2006)
About Resonans with Tomoko Mukaiyama
The recorder appears to be a fairly respectable instrument, but last Tuesday, Brisk and the pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama dashed this idea in a concert centred around music by Guus Janssen. The innocent piece of wood became the source of surprisingly wild effects.
The quartet changed the sound spectrum of Baroque recorders already in the first piece of the programme by waving glissandi through the chords. After that the musicians went on destroying the traditional ideas about their instruments in three compositions by Guus Janssen. The final work by Michiel Mensingh, full of abrupt changes and wild dancing rhythms, constituted the final blow to the respectable image of the recorder.
(Brabants Dagblad, October 2005)
About Strings & Wind with The Locke Consort
The programming of this concert was adventurous. To appear on stage with authentic instruments for the performance of music from around 1600 and to play two contemporay pieces in one and the same concert is quite a thing. And this was shown to great effect. Before the interval the audience could listen to music from the period of the German Thirty Years’ War. The musicians of both Brisk and The Locke Consort proved to be excellent masters of their instruments. Two works by Bart Visman (1962) were played in the second half. Echoes of the sound world from before the interval came back in a new way in music that developed into a ‘vision heard’. Here again contemplation, sound fields and beautifully played cadenza parts were to be heard, showing that these musicians had fully understood the composers’ ideas. The lasting and almost ovational applause after this special concert was fully deserved, and makes us hope to see these two marvellous groups again.
(Asser Journaal, March 2005)
About Play Well! (Speel Goed!) with Porgy Franssen and Bart Kiene
When visiting a classical concert with their parents, children have to sit still and are not to talk or giggle. Sometimes you can’t hold back your laughter on such an occasion. In ‘Play well’ two stage managers do everything that is forbidden during a sophisticated concert by Brisk, and this is great fun. The four musicians, dressed in gala, play music by Johann Sebastian Bach and new music by Henny Vrienten. Small things are enough for the two stage managers to make people laugh. A respectful look at the musicians, suppressed yawning or a cough, it is all very funny because of the actors’ mimics and the musicians’ serious faces. Of course everything gets worse during the concert. But although it is a mess around them, the flautists keep up their professional attitude even when a vacuum cleaner joins the music, together with the singing saw that cuts recorders into pieces.
(Trouw, April 2004)
About Time will say nothing with Michael Chance
Consort music, originally written for voice and instruments in the 16th century, is to be heard today in many combinations, but most innovatively by the Dutch Brisk ensemble together with Michael Chance. Their programme includes three contemporary versions of the English consort song.
(VPRO-gids, September 2003)
The concert in the Geertekerk was all about realistic consort song. In William Byrd’s words: “Made for instruments to express the harmony, and one voice to pronounce the ditty.” The instruments were in the trusted hands of the elegant Brisk recorder quartet and the ditty was realised by the flexible countertenor Michael Chance in his own unrivalled way.