Boreas, god of the north wind, gave the Boreas Quartett Bremen its name: wind, air, and breath bring the recorders to resound. The Boreas Quartett Bremen plays music from the heyday of the consort.
An evening with BQB immerses you in the rich full sound of the consort, while music of the 20th and 21st century adds a contemporary dimension. The musicians play over 40 flutes of different sizes and construction, including a twelve part Renaissance consort.
Jin-Ju Baek, Elisabeth Champollion, Julia Fritz and Luise Manske studied at the Early Music department of the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, where they graduated in 2009 and 2011. The quartet has played concerts in Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Czech Republic and at the International Recorder Festival in Taiwan. A regular cooperation exists between the quartet and recorder player Han Tol. Together they play five-part English consort music, for instance by William Byrd and Christopher Tye. In 2012 the quartet won the first prize and audience prize of the Early Music competition run by Saarland radio and the Fritz-Neumeyer-Akademie in Saarbrücken, Germany.
The quartet is supported by the foundation Laudate, Cantate and has appeared in festivals such as Musikfest Bremen, MDR Musiksommer, Musica Antica Urbino (I), Tage Alter Musik Saarbrücken, Taiwan International Recorder Festival, Concentus Moraviae (CZ), baroque mürz (A), Life I Live Festival (NL), Musica Viva Osnabrück, Studio für Neue Musik Siegen and with Weser Renaissance.
In 2015 the first CD of the ensemble was released on the label cpo: the complete recording of the In Nomine compositions of Christopher Tye.
SONUS about Boreas Quartett Bremen:
They clearly belong to a generation of young musicians of the Early Music scene, who grew up with the highest technical demands in mind, but also have learned to present themselves competently and appealingly on stage, the four young ladies of Boreas. Thus they not only convince with their technical and musical skills, with seemingly effortless brilliance and striking virtuosity, but at the same time they manage to carry away also audiences without any experience in Renaissance and/or contemporary repertoire through their emotional intensity, their enthusiasm and spirited performances.
That is not least thanks to their ascertained sense for putting together programmes which are doubtless well-grounded in scholarly and musicologically concerns, but at the same time correspond to the desire of most listeners to be entertained - though, with Boreas, at highest level!
Regarding their technique they impress especially by playing perfectly in tune, but extremely expressive - a not too easy challenge on the recorder, with its rather limited dynamic flexibility. But also in musical regards Jin-Ju, Elisabeth, Julia and Luisealso have very clear ideas of what they want to achieve and how they can manage this by for example suitable articulation and agogics.
And besides: they're simply charming...
Sound samples
Christopher Tye: In Nomine Crye
Christopher Simpson: Volta
Christopher Tye: Weep no more
Piet Swerts (*1960): Flashing Flutes
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