maison erard – focus tv
Thursday, 9 February
We’re home! The orchestra is about to start rehearsing before our birthday concert in Bruges tonight.
Saturday’s concert in Brussels was an encouraging highlight. And we’ll have the chance to experience it again when it’s broadcast in September. More good exposure: Anima was an item in Saturday’s late night news on national television.
Yesterday morning we left for Dijon, which is really our second home. A long day of travel took us to the lovely Auditorium for the third concert of the series. After a three-day break it’s always exciting to dive back into the music and this time wasn’t any different, especially since we were performing this wonderful French music on its own turf. An overly enthusiastic part of the audience applauded almost every single movement, but everything went well and it’s always a great pleasure to meet up with our friends in the mustard city. The travel back went just as smoothly, giving everyone the chance to get some deserved rest. Both today’s rehearsal and concert will be recorded for the live cd that we’re releasing in September. The recording will also be broadcast by radio Klara on 28 February.
Tonight’s the last one, so that means also the last chance to get the perfect recording. Everyone’s aware of that, so there’s an even more concentrated buzz than the past few days. We’re expecting the mayor of Bruges tonight, and our friends at the Concertgebouw (who just offered us two full boxes of chocolate on top of the usual baskets of fruit – thank you!) have threatened us with another birthday surprise at our reception after the concert. The night is young and full of promise. Tomorrow the team is taking the guided tour of Maison Erard before attending Jos’ recital with Sandrine Piau – what a treat!
Casualties of the past days: a few kilos on the team members’ bodies and one window at the Auditorium de Dijon: despite the ridiculous cold, a local rebel thought yesterday night was a good moment to throw an egg at the building. Very curious what this action was about. Against culture? Against windows? Or maybe it was an accident.
Anima Eterna Brugge in the news
Anima’s anniversary project was announced on Belgian national television, in the VRT late night news.
Interview met Jos van Immerseel in de TIJD
‘Muziek spelen zoals de componist het hoorde’
gepubliceerd op 04 februari 2012 in de Tijd
Saturday, 4 February
After five days of intense rehearsals in Bruges, Anima played the premiere in Antwerp yesterday. It’s always a happy return to deSingel; we have so many good orchestral memories of the place. A good, fraternal vibe among the musicians saved the heavy workday. They were ready for serious business after Anima’s birthday party the night before. We celebrated Anima’s 25th with food and drinks and with El MariaChill de Don Pedro Arreola. This Antwerp based, Latin American combo had everyone up and dancing until – errr – some time past midnight.
Yesterday was an exciting day, for many reasons.We released Debussy unto our audience, but we were also expecting a delivery: one of the team members drove to Den Haag and back to pick up our vinyl record. Having left in a sunny Antwerp at 11 AM, he couldn’t predict that sudden heavy snowfall would congest Belgian and Dutch roads up to a total of over 1000 km of jams. He arrived at the concert hall with our vinyl at 7.58 PM – two minutes before the premiere.
It’s worth taking your record player down from the attic and from under thirty years of dust: the vinyl is so shiny, so new, so full of beautiful bits of music and such good quality. Until the end of this year, Jos will sign and dedicate records after every concert.
We have just arrived in Brussels and everyone’s resting a bit before getting on the tour bus that will take us to Flagey for the second concert. Tonight’s gig will be recorded by Canvas, Belgian television. Check the website and facebook page for the broadcast date.
Brussels is covered in snow, the sun is out and it’s a beautiful day. But the weather also has its down sides. Casualties so far: one cello and one double bass are showing cracks from the drought. The broken clarinet has been provisionally fixed, but it will need further repair when it’s home.
And we’re off to the concert hall.
Tuesday, 31 January
This morning’s ominous five minutes of snow have made way for a bright blue sky. Bruges is bathing in sunlight and the orchestra is well into the third day of the Debussy project. We kicked off on Sunday, rehearsing with a well prepared string group. Yesterday the winds and percussion sections joined their colleagues. Not an self-evident thing, as the national strike in Belgium left us unsure whether all 37 musicians would make it here on time. The team split up to pick up musicians in Köln, Lille, Brussels airport. Today, all 83 musicians are here – working on La Mer as we write this.
Jos is absolutely thrilled with the way the band sounds. The Anima team, as usual, are the privileged witnesses to Debussy’s resurrection.
The stage is an impressive sight: the orchestra is quite big and between the chairs, coats, violin cases, music stands, cups of water and tea, there are microphones everywhere – this whole project, including the rehearsals, is being recorded live. (Look out for the Debussy release in September!)
Casualties of the day: one broken bass clarinet – to be continued.
JOS VAN IMMERSEEL OVER 25 JAAR ANIMA & DEBUSSY
‘Een duik in Debussy’
gepubliceerd op 28 januari 2012 in de Standaard
Newsletter – Symphonic Silver – December 2011 (EN)
Anima Eterna Brugge and Jos van Immerseel wish you happy holidays and a wonderful 2012.
In 2012 Anima celebrates its 25th anniversary. We will do everything we can to make it an extraordinary year. As always, we welcome you at our concerts, but there is more.
This winter you will have a chance to see part of Jos van Immerseel’s collection of historical pianos during the four days of Maison Erard, an exhibition at the Concertgebouw in Bruges. In February, you can hop on the virtual tour bus waiting for you on the website. Mozart is coming over in June and in September, we will release Debussy on cd.
And we have a surprise for you. To find out what it is, please tune in for more news in February, at the start of our Debussy project.
Thank you for listening.
We will be playing,
Anima Eterna Brugge
Finding the right groove since 1987.
