The Diamond Ensemble on CD

Music by Spohr, Dvorák and Carl Nielsen

With its ten musicians and nine different instruments The Diamond Ensemble has the opportunity of playing a large number of different chamber music arrangements. The ensemble has since 2004 released three albums with their interpretations of three great composers.

The first one was released on May 1st 2006 on the Naxos label. Here the ensemble chose to record two nonets where the nine instruments, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello and double bass in the best possible way combined the sound of strings and wind instruments in the classic nonet composition. The composer Louis Spohr wrote his Gran nonetto in F Major in 1813 - a work which established what might today be termed the classic nonet composition; it was therefore natural to let this work form part of the selection on The Diamond Ensemble’s CD.

Many years later, in the Czechoslovakia of the 1960s, Frantisek Herti, who was a double bass player in his own ensemble, The Czech Nonet, was busy extending the repertoire for just this arrangement. He was a skilled arranger and produced the delightful nonet version of Dvorák’s Serenade for blæsere (Serenade for wind instruments) (1878), which has almost become a kind of musical visiting card for The Diamond Ensemble after the work was played at the ensemble’s opening concert in May 2004.

In 2007 two albums with the famous danish composer Carl Nielsen was released on the danish label Dacapo Records. Here The Diamond Ensemble plays in different formations supplemented by guest performances with the pianist Jens Elvekjær and the danish pianotrio Trio Ondine.

The first CD contains some of Nielsens well know pieces, a.o. his windquartet, his two fantasypieces and the famous Tågen Letter (The Fog is Lifting). The music magazine Fanfare Magazine gave following review: "DiamantEnsemblet plays the serenade and the quintet wonderfully. This may be the best recording of it yet. The whole recording makes me look forward to the rest of the series"

The second Carl Nielsen CD contains his pieces for violin and piano and for solo violin. These are some of Nielsens more demanding pieces both in terms of playing and listening. The two violinists of the ensemble did a good job though and the danish newpaper Kristeligt Dagblad claimed the album to be “technically perfect and very sincerely”.

All of the music is recorded in The Queen’s Hall, which is the ensemble’s permanent concert venue.