Anima Eterna and Jos van Immerseel - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 & Nutcracker Suite (2002)

Jos van Immerseel is an outstanding period keyboard player who has been heard on the clavicembalo and fortepiano. Eugene Tracy, Flor Peeters, and Kenneth Gilbert were his instructors at the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp, where he won first prizes in piano, organ, and harpsichord between 1961 and 1971. During that period, he also won a number of competitions, culminating with the winning of the inaugural Paris Forum International de Clavecin in 1973. He is in demand as a soloist around the world, traveling with his own fortepiano at times, known for his musical receptiveness and responsiveness and his improvisational skills. He founded the Collegium Musicum in Antwerp, conducting that ensemble and the Collegium Vocale to expand his interest in Renaissance and Baroque music. In 1985, he found the orchestra Anima Eterna, also a period instrument group, which he has conducted from the keyboard. Much of his performing is focused on music of the Classical and early Romantic eras, although he has also recorded songs of Fauré with Max van Egmond, and of Debussy with Sandrine Piau, and the music of César Franck. Vera Beths and Anner Bylsma regularly perform and record with him, as well, most notably in Schubert's chamber works.

In addition to his performing and recording, van Immerseel keeps busy with writing articles and reviews, producing radio programs, and teaching. He has taught at the Antwerp Conservatory and Amsterdam's Sweelinck Conservatory; used the instruments in Antwerp's Vleeshuis Museum to give classes for its academy; and since 1992 has been on the faculty of the Paris Conservatoire.

Van Immerseel records for Channel Classics and Sony, among other labels. His Beethoven piano concerto recordings with Tafelmusik were noted for the cadenzas, which he wrote in keeping with the capabilities of the period instrument. However, one of his finest achievements is his recording of the fortepiano version of Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ. ~ Patsy Morita