Johan Brouwer is celebrating one more anniversary: ​​reason for a double CD and a free concert

The nice thing about Johan Brouwer’s anniversary CDs is that they not only contain recordings of him as an organist and harpsichordist, but also of the Winschoter Chamber Choir of which he was conductor and other northern choirs that collaborated with the Collegium Musicum, which he founded in 1972. For those who were there, these are nostalgic contributions to the history of baroque music in Groningen.

It started with the Groningen Bachvereniging: it brought the pioneering baroque orchestra Concentus Musicus to Groningen in 1971, and in ’73 they performed the first baroque St. Matthew Passion in the Netherlands with all the well-known Dutch and Belgian baroque musicians of that time. At that time we spoke of ‘authentic’: at the record label Telefunken it was called ‘authentische Aufführungen with Original Instruments’.

It didn’t sound perfect at first, which is also audible with the Collegium Musicum on the CDs: it gradually gets better. That time also included discovering unknown old repertoire: the Marian Vespers by Monteverdi (no one had ever heard it before), church music by Vivaldi and (also on the CDs) the Messe des Morts by Jean Gilles. Not only Brouwer did this, foreign baroque celebrities also presented music by forgotten, often French, greats.

At Brouwer we hear the soloists who also performed with the Groningen Bachvereniging at that time, and as a surprise the now world-famous soprano Barbara Hannigan who sings Vivaldi. Brouwer also performed a Lukas Passion by Telemann with the Winschoter Chamber Choir, containing a curious soprano aria, but unfortunately it is not included.

The CDs contain organ work (Bach, Tunder, Böhm) and harpsichord music that he also played at his anniversary concert: Bach, Froberger, Louis and François Couperin. It sounds like the concert: Brouwer plays everything these days with calm certainty.