Page 195 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

Netherlands Wind Ensemble: Complete Philips Recordings (Decca Eloquence)

Though the world may be heading for hell in a handcart, collectors of classical box sets have
never had it so good. Here’s a choice example, the 17 CDs in this beautifully designed package
containing every note recorded by the Netherlands Wind Ensemble on the now defunct Philips
label, most of the original LPs released in the 1970s. Oboist (and later conductor) Edo De Waart
played with the group from its first concerts in 1961, effectively a double wind quintet perfect for
tackling Mozart divertimenti. The demands made by members’ flourishing orchestral careers
caused problems, and only in 1966 did a second group of musicians coalesce into the group’s
second incarnation. In De Waart’s words, “people were chosen first of all on what sort of a guy
they were, and then as a musician – it was a brotherhood!”. That you’ll only find three female
musicians listed here (one of them soprano Elly Ameling) reflects the times, De Waart recalling
that “at that point, women in orchestras nearly all played strings; it took another 10 years for that
ceiling to be broken.”