NETHERLANDS BACH SOCIETY
CAPPELLA FIGURALIS

Saints and Sinners 17th Century Musical Dialogues
Giovanni Antonio Grossi: Quo Domine;
Benedictus a Sancto Josepho:
Ave Maria Marc Antoine Charpentier:
In honorem Ceciliae, Valeriani et Tiburtii Canticum H.394 Augustin Pfleger: O pulcherissima mulier, op.1 Servaus de Koninck:
Venite ad me (De Elevatione) Benedictus a Sancto Josepho: Domine, ne in furore;
Obstupescite Carel Hacquart: O Jesu splendor
(period performance)

 The current Choir of the Netherlands Bach  Society was founded in 1983 and consists of about twenty singers. Most of them have completed vocal studies at one of the Netherlands conservatories. They have all become specialists in the performance of vocal music of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The solo ensemble Cappella Figuralis was founded in 1989 by Jos van Veldhoven and performs under the auspices of The Netherlands Bach Society. As was usually the custom in the 17th and 18th centuries, the ensemble almost always performs in a one-on-a-part disposition, varying from a total of two to ten singers and an equal number of instrumentalists. Most of the musicians in Cappella Figuralis have also acquired considerable individual reputations outside of the ensemble. During recent years, Cappella Figuralis have given regular performances of the music of famous Baroque composers such as Schütz, Monteverdi, Sweelinck, Buxtehude, and Bach. But the ensemble has acquired its greatest renown with adventurous programming with a particular emphasis on lesser known repertoire. Works by Netherlands composers of the ‘Golden Century’ and Italian, French, German, and Netherlands dialogues of the 17th century were frequently on the program. Cappella Figuralis has produced literally dozens of contemporary premieres by composers, like Buns, Verrijt, Van Geertsom, Charpentier, Cozzolani, Piccinini, Cossoni, Grossi, Pfleger, Tunder, Hacquart, De Koninck and Kuhnau.
The ensemble has made a number of recordings for radio and TV broadcast, and has recently edited its first CD recording: ’Saints & Sinners’ which got a very good press (Channel Classics Records).

Jos van Veldhoven studied musicology at the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht and choral and orchestral conducting at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Since 1983 he has been artistic director of The Netherlands Bach Society. In this capacity he gives regular performances of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries both in the Netherlands and abroad. Since 1989 Jos van Veldhoven has also been the conductor of the solo ensemble Cappella Figuralis, which concentrates particularly on the music of the 17th century. In addition Van Veldhoven conducts the Utrechts Barok Consort he founded in 1976. Together with all of his ensembles, he has made a large number of recordings for radio, television, and CD both at home and abroad, and has appeared at festivals in the Netherlands and many other countries in Europe.

In recent years, Jos van Veldhoven has frequently attracted attention with performances of ‘new’ repertoire in the early music field. Particular interest has been drawn by performances including oratorios by Telemann and Graun, the Vespers of Gastoldi, Netherlands repertoire from the ’Golden Century’, and numerous unknown 17th century dialogue pieces. Jos van Veldhoven also conducted many contemporary premiers of Baroque operas by composers including Mattheson, Keiser, Bononcini, Legrenzi, and Scarlatti. He also has made his own reconstructions of lost compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach such as the St. Mark Passion and the so-called ’Köthener Trauer-Music’.
Jos van Veldhoven also has a considerable reputation as a teacher. He is associated with the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague as a professor of choral conducting and ensemble technique. He is also the director of the yearly summer course for choral conductors, the ’Kurt Thomas Course’ in Utrecht.

 

(...) de beide sopranen kunnen tot de beste barokzangers van hun generatie worden gerekend. (...) (...) zeer aantrekkelijke cd door het gekozen repertoire (...) Volkskrant, October 1998
(...) Melodische rijkdom en harmonische inventiviteit (...) (...) Meesterlijke muziek (...) (...) Een magistrale opname (...) HP/De Tijd, October 1998
(...) een boeiende selectie componisten (...) (...) door vitale klanken omlijste stichtelijke toneelstukjes die geestrijk worden uitgevoerd. (...) (...) Er wordt uitstekend gemusicieerd. (...) (...) de beide sopranen zijn van internationale allure. (...) NRC/Handelsblad, October 1998
(...) Pit en hartstocht in deze religieuze muziek. (...) Trouw, November 1998
(...) een cd van internationale klasse (...) (...) Mag deze cd dan soms ook eens een Edison? (...) (...) Interessant cd en repertoire. Tijdschrift voor Oude Muziek, January 1999
(...) werkelijk van zeer hoog gehalte (...) (...) waarom is dit pas hun eerste cd?) Luister, January 1999
(...) Prachtig afgewogen uitvoering (...) Hervormd Nederland
(...) This is a disc of such unexpexted pleasures. Well worth investigating though. (...) Gramophone