[TR24][OF] Finzi, Mozart, Bruch - Dedications: Works for Clarinet & Orchestra (Roeland Hendrikx, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins) - 2018 (Classical, Concertos)

Roeland Hendrikx
is one of the leading clarinetists in Belgium.
He appeared as a soloist with the Belgian National Orchestra, The Flemish Symphony Orchestra (B), I Fiamminghi (B), the Beethoven Academy (B), the Flemish Radio Orchestra (B), The Limburg Symphonic Orchestra (NL), the Georgia Philharmonic (US), the Symphonic Orchestra of Lithuania and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Hagen (Germany). In April 2018, Roeland Hendrikx recorded works for clarinet and orchestra of Mozart, Finzi and Bruch with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Martyn Brabbins, in the famous Henry Wood Hall in London. The CD will be released at the label Evil Penguin Classic in October 2018.
Roeland Hendrikx is also passionate about chamber music. As a distinguished chamber musician, he has performed at well known international music festivals and venues. He played with renowned artists and string quartets (amongst others Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort, Severin Von Eckardstein, Ursula Gorniak, France Springuel, Panocha Quartet, Tempera Quartet (Finland), Vega String Quartet (USA) and Danel Quartet. In 2015 Roeland Hendrikx set up his own chamber music ensemble, (Roeland Hendrikx Ensemble), which focuses on the rich repertoire for clarinet, piano and strings.
Roeland is teaching clarinet at the Maastricht Conservatory (The Netherlands) and the LUCA School of Arts in Leuven (Belgium). He has given masterclasses in Europe, China, Japan, and the US. For years (1998-2017), he has been clarinet soloist at the Belgian National Orchestra and La Monnaie, the National Opera of Belgium.
Sander Geerts
is Principal violist of The Royal Flemish Philharmonic. In 2011 he founded Duo Agineko, a viola-piano duo with pianist Yasuko Takahashi. Together they have won several chamber music prizes at international competitions (of which the International J. Brahms Competition in Pörtschach, Austria 2011 and 2012 and the Grand Prix International Competition of Young Performers Madeira, Portugal 2011), and recorded two CD’s.

This release features the best Belgian clarinettist, Roeland Hendrikx, in collaboration with one of the world’s oldest and finest orchestras, the London Philharmonic. Hendrikx, incidentally, is the first Belgian virtuoso to team up with this illustrious ensemble. On the programme is the most famous clarinet concerto (Mozart’s), an undeservedly lesser known concerto (Bruch’s Double Concerto for Clarinet and Viola), and an erroneously forgotten one (by Gerald Finzi). All three concertos are more appropriately dubbed “clarinettist” concertos instead of clarinet concertos: more than any other instrument, the clarinet is a medium for personal dedication to specific virtuosi. Mozart created his clarinet concerto for Anton Stadler, while Max Bruch dedicated his (double) concerto to his son Max Felix. In some cases, however, the link between piece and performer is even stronger. Hendrikx had front row access to Gerald Finzi’s delicately autumnal concerto via his teacher Thea King, doyenne of British clarinettists and spouse of Frederick Thurston, who premiered the Finzi-concerto in 1949. According to Hendrikx, “Thea must have witnessed the creation process. In her own hand, she scribbled helpful recommendations in my score, which may have been passed on from Thurston, if not from Finzi himself”. But there is more. On 27 April 1998, Thea King bequeathed to Hendrikx the letters Finzi had written to her late husband between 1948 and 1953: they document the first ideas for the concerto, its genesis, and its growing post-premiere fame. These letters enable Hendrikx to go beyond the notes of the concerto, meet the protagonists, and do some sightseeing in the music’s spatiotemporal context. The Finzi-Thurston letters are extensively dealt with in the liner notes to this album, which is a veritable tribute to the concert clarinet: Hendrikx and the London Philharmonic Orchestra pay homage to a genre, its gems, and its genius performers.