The principle work on this album is in fact Vloeimans’ very own trumpet concerto,Evensong. This consists of four movements which he wrote in collaboration with composer and arranger Martin Fondse, these represent a journey trough Vloeimans’ musical experience. The first piece, Lex, is written as the film score to the filmAuditie/Audition (2011). This is an animation film about Lex van Weeren (1920-1996), a Jewish trumpet player and orchestra conductor. He became the camps orchestra conductor and trumpet player in Auschwitz, which helped him to survive. Waterfront was written for an open air concert at the Kralingse Plas (lake) and was inspired by the music Leonard Bernstein wrote for the Oscar-winning film On the Waterfront. About the piece Requiem, Vloeimans states: “I had no firm plans to write a classical requiem. Nothing serious had happened in my life that would call for an elegy. But magic went its own way, and things happened as they did: the composition ultimately wrote itself and became this Requiem.” Finally, Your Majesty is a piece originally written for the filmMajesteit, a film about the Dutch queen Beatrix, that wound up not being used in the film.
Line-up:
Eric Vloeimans: trumpet
The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
Jurjen Hempel: conductor
Hans Vroomans: piano
Jeroen Vierdag: double bass
Dirk-Peter Kölsch: drums
Eric Vloeimans’ is often praised for his inventive, virtuosic and above all elegant playing, in 2002 his whole oeuvre was awarded with the most important jazz prize in The Netherlands, The Boy Edgar Prize (2002).