After exploring the universe of Ravel, Anima Eterna continues its voyage of discovery through twentieth-century French music with Francis Poulenc. In Jos van Immerseel’s view, Poulenc is one of the most significant personalities of the twentieth century, coupling immense erudition with surprising spontaneity. Not to mention the fact that Poulenc was also a particularly brilliant pianist.

In the course of the 1996-97 season, Anima Eterna played and recorded Schubert's complete symphonies in the particularly innovative interpretation of their conductor, Jos van Immerseel. This interpretation, based on the study of Schubert's manuscripts and on the instruments used at the time of their first performance, allows us to discover sound colours that combine freshness and profundity.

George Gershwin composed his Rhapsody in Blue in 1924. In the same year, he launched his collaboration with his brother Ira, which produced countless songs. He never achieved his ambition of studying with Maurice Ravel, but was always enthralled by the symphonic poem and the concerto. His masterpieces, such as An American in Paris and the opera Porgy and Bess, greatly enriched the American musical heritage. Jos van Immerseel has always been fascinated by Gershwin, but it was the appearance of a new edition of the scores that prompted the pianist and conductor to record this extensive homage. Thanks to the very latest research undertaken by the University of Michigan, the Library of Congress and the Gershwin Estate, he and his companions in Anima Eterna have got closer than ever before to the composer’s intentions, making use of the appropriate instruments.

These performances of the Beethoven symphonies and overtures seek to perform these masterpieces employing the same instrumentation, acoustics and timing that Beethoven heard (when he could) and used. Thus we are placed in hearing this music the way its composer wanted us to hear it.

Anima Eterna Brugge, founded by Jos Van Immerseel in 1987, is a period-instrument orchestra based in Bruges. The size of the ensemble varies from seven to eighty musicians, depending on the programme. Its repertory ranges from Monteverdi to Gershwin.

As with most of Haydn’s masses, the Missa Cellensis is more well known by its alias,“Cäcilienmesse” (Cecilia Mass), rather than by its original name. Joseph Haydn began work on the mass in 1766, when he assumed the position as Music Director for the princely Court of Esterházy. With its unusually large orchestra and a duration of almost one hour, this composition is the longest and most extensive of Haydn’s masses. Haydn followed the traditional structure by setting the parts of the Ordinary in individual movements, in which the text is interpreted through the use of variety and contrast in scoring and compositional technique. For quite some time now, Jos van Immerseel and his Ensemble Anima Eterna have enjoyed an outstanding reputation for presenting their unique and special type of historical performance practice: For the present recording they employed Vienna wind instruments and the string instruments are modeled on instruments from the Viennese classical period.

Jos van Immerseel aime le son ou plutôt les sons… Il est capable de se passionner pour un pianoforte Walter (ca 1795-1800) comme pour les Erard 1897 ou 1904 du disque " Pièces à deux pianos " ou pour un Bechstein, ou Tröndlin… toujours à la recherche de la diversité et du singulier. C'est également cette passion du " sonner juste " qui l'a poussé à créer Anima Eterna, véritable laboratoire des acoustiques du XVIII au XX.

This very well recorded disc from 2003 is yet another fine disc from Immerseel and his orchestra once more extending his 'period' interests well beyond the Baroque and Classical areas of musical history. In this case Immerseel turns his attention to music by Liszt which he will have been familiar with as solo piano music but which also exists in its orchestral guise supplied by Liszt. These are not transcriptions but are real alternative versions for orchestra. The one exception is the tone poem, From the Cradle to the Grave' which was a late work, never performed during Liszt's life and only available as an orchestral composition.

Often described as ‘music for amateurs’, sometimes used (or misused) towards purely commercial ends, Orff’s Carmina Burana was clearly ready for a new approach, a sort of revivifying, thorough rethinking. This has now been done, thanks to Jos van Immerseel and the absolutely exceptional musical team that he assembled.

Ein Garant für spannende Aufnahmen mit hohem Authentizitätsfaktor sind Anima Eterna und Jos van Immerseel. Fern von effekthascherischen Äußerlichkeiten präsentiert Immerseel ein durchweg erfrischendes Hörerlebnis, dem man sich gerne hingibt.

This monumental work of French Romanticism is one of the essential landmarks in the career of any conductor. The quality of Berlioz’s orchestration and questions of timbre and the ideal instrumental forces lie at the core of the approach of Jos van Immerseel and Anima Eterna Brugge, who are increasingly drawn to French composers and especially to their precise, shimmering orchestral textures.

I wouldn’t have thought the world was anxiously waiting for a historically informed performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade . Written in 1888 and a masterpiece of orchestration, it would seem that this was one work that really cries out for the full resources of a modern symphony orchestra. So I was surprised when I saw a listing for this new recording with the Bruges-based period-instrument ensemble, Anima Eterna. Despite all the heat generated in some quarters, I remain fairly neutral regarding H.I.P., seeing it neither as the salvation of music from 20th-century excesses nor as the death of music through formalism. At their best, H.I.P. performances throw a different light on the overly familiar.

The music of Johann Strauss reflects a lifestyle, a refinement … a true Viennese tradition. At the same time, this music simply creates joie de vivre, an almost uncontrollable urge to dance. It is these feelings and these emotions Anima Eterna and its leader, Jos van Immerseel communicate with delicacy and conviction; also with a view to the greatest possible proximity to the score as it was conceived at the time of its creation.