Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra / Concerto for Flute, Harp and Orchestra / Horn Concerto No 3

"Every once in a while a disc comes along that you know you are going to treasure. It will become an old friend, an indispensable part of your collection. In a way, the pleasure is increased if the recording comes as a surprise. Among the crowds of CDs being released during Mozart year, amid the Mutters, the Rattles and other big names, it's Jos Van Immerseel and his Anima Eterna - a group he handpicks specially for each project - who have made the greatest impression on me. There is something profoundly joyful, even sublime, about the music-making here. It is Mozart to gladden your heart and enrich your soul. If I sound gushing, the performances do not. There is nothing showy here, and although they command a dazzling palette of orchestral colours, Immerseel and Co don't resort to attention-grabbing gestures. They just know how to play this music and sound as if they are doing so for their own pleasure. If we choose to enter their luxurious realm, and they allow us to stay, then lucky us. This is a disc that I'll be playing again and again."
(Recording of the Month Gramophone August 2006)

This new 'concertante' recording presents Jos van Immerseel and Yoko Kaneko along with three soloists from the orchestra: Franck Theuns (flute), Marjan de Haer (harp), and Ulrich Hübner (horn). The distinctive qualities of Anima Eterna's approach can be heard immediately in their choice of instruments. Each soloist searches for the most appropriate instrument, either in his or her own collection or in museums around Europe: a copy by Christopher Clarke of a Walter fortepiano, a flute after a Grenser original, a single-action pedal harp by Érard, and a valveless horn attributed to the Viennese maker Joseph Huschauer and loaned by the Schloss Eutin Foundation.

"Those who still suspect baroque players of selfsatisfied ornamentation in Mozart's music will lose their composure over these new interpretations" "The first Diapason d'or of Mozart's anniversary year is for these reinterpretations full of "chair et sang" / (flesh and blood) : Jos van Immerseel and the unhibited style of Anima Eterna sheds the wigs" Diapason d'or Arte