Han de Vries
The almost last recordings – 18 CDs & 1 DVD
About
Following the CD box Han de Vries – The Radio Recordings, which was released five years ago to mark Han de Vries’ seventieth birthday we now present a box twice the size of the previous one, presented to him on his seventy-fifth birthday by his friends and relations. After the previous collection with mainly live radio recordings still more material remained that deserved to be preserved, including recordings that are no longer available. Therefore this second ‘brick’ with a great variety of music: from the Baroque period to our own time, played on the modern oboe and the baroque oboe, with orchestras that do or do not adhere to authenticity, led by as many great conductors (who did or did not start life as a violinist) – all this from a period comprising thirty-three years of musical life in the Netherlands, from 1967 to 2000, from the first LP recordings with baroque sonatas to the exuberant, jazzy music of Willem Breuker. These recordings show the development of Han de Vries, from star pupil of Jaap Stotijn to baroque specialist and would-be jazz musician, and they explain why he is generally considered to be one of the outstanding and most fascinating exponents of the Dutch school of oboe playing, which is characterized by a lean, melodious, flexible and open sound, as developed by Jaap Stotijn, and emphasis on musicality rather than technique.