Anima Eterna has often shown that it has a fantastic feeling for 'sound', whether it is Mozart or Johann Strauß. But this CD too has a virtuoso tone with its timbre: soft flutes and bare strings for Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe; devilish sounds for the Totentanz, (a paraphrase of the Dies Irae from the dead mass); the czimbalom and the ophicléide for the 'local color' of the Hungarian Rhapsodies.
This determined treatment of the orchestral compelled pianist Rian de Waal to take place behind a historical instrument for the first time in his life. It must have taken some getting used to, because on a modern Steinway with rehearsal mechanics the many repetitive tones of the Totentanz can still be done. However, in Jos van Immerseel's collection there was an Erard with a mechanism with which this bone rattling could be efficiently taken. Rian de Waal still calls himself a Steinway man, "but one who enjoyed his courtship with the Erard very much and who will gladly do it again!" (HJ)more
