Brahms, Schumann and Poulenc with Remy van Kesteren

Netherlands Radio Choir sings Poulenc
Benjamin Goodson puts the Groot Omroepkoor back on edge', according to the Volkskrant. The young British conductor has won widespread praise for his highly driven approach. Today, the choir sounds largely a capella. For example in Poulenc's Figure humaine, a cantata for double choir. Poulenc composed an ode to freedom on the basis of poems by Paul Éluard, secretly distributed among the resistance during the war. Heartwarmingly tender and determined.

Schumann and Brahms
Harpist Remy van Kesteren accompanies the Groot Omroepkoor in Brahms' Four Quartets. Poetry by Goethe and others sings of the darkness and romance of night and autumn. Schumann's Vier doppelchörige Gesänge also have an autumnal atmosphere. Wind, rain and thunder plague the typically romantic protagonist in these melancholic choral songs.