PIETER-JAN BELDER

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It's obvious: with Belder we are confronted with impressive talent. In short, everything about this playing of Sweelinck is well thought out, the phrasings and most of all the ornamentation, which appears faultlessly articulated.

Luister, 1994

 

Belder’s Scarlatti survey offers hours upon hours of listening pleasure, and unquestionably constitutes a major achievement.

Classics today

 

Belder ranges among the most interesting players of historical keyboards. With two harpsichords, a virginal, and an organ, Belder brings a blush to Byrd's cheeks. Impressive is the subtle characterisation of the music. Cleverly articulating and neatly timing Belder sends this keyboard music into the world with controlled flair.

Guido van Oorschot, de Volkskrant

 

On the contrary, Belder reveals himself as a superior harpsichordist. He controls his craft with enviable technical ease. Rhythmically his clear playing is unfaltering, and stylistically it is without fault. And all presented with spirit and vitality. His interpretations of the Italian concert, the Ouverture in the French style, the Chromatic Fantasia, Fugue, and the six Partitas alone are worth the acquisition of this album. Belder can measure himself in this repertoire with a greatness likened to Gustav Leonhardt.

Hans Heg, de Volkskrant (1999)

 

But Belder never leaves the componist's musical world and he is as accurate as he is thorough, and that is a virtue for someone who conscientiously, virtuously, leads the listener through this fine labyrinth. A respectable, great achievement.

Jan de Kruijff, 2007 (about the complete Scarlatti)

 

Pieter-Jan Belder has done an enormous service to Scarlatti, and his playing is never less than alive, fresh sounding, and thoroughly engaged in the music’s acrobatics and gymnastics. Bravo to Belder and Brilliant Classics. Very strongly recommended. 
FANFARE: Jerry Dubins, reviewing the first release of this box

 

Belder is careful to balance the baroque and Enlightenment sensibilities of this music (Soler), adding shades of rubato at structurally significant cadences, for example, but never straying too far from the rigid tempos that characterise performances of music of earlier generations.

Gavin Dixton, Presto Classical

 

Pieter-jan Belder has a special feeling for these quirky and capricious works, keeping form and content firmly together. (C.P.E. Bach, Preussische und Württembergische Sonaten)

Presto Classical

 

“With Belder’s superb keyboard artistry and consummate technique – which the writing clearly demands – you need look no further. The period-instrument ensemble, Musica Amphion, provides the perfect accompaniment, under Belder’s secure direction from the keyboard, and the recording finely captures the same dynamic balance you would expect live.” (C.P.E. Bach, harpsichord concerto's)
MusicWeb International, 13th May 2014

 

Purcell, complete Chambermusic

Musica Amphion's performance of this significant - if not entirely varied - material is heart-felt and compelling. Also a highlight in this compilation is Belder's fine interpretation of Purcell's Eight suites for harpsichord; full of life and energy one moment, intimate and atmospheric the next, Belder achieves an astounding variety of emotions within his performance.

Claudine Nightingale, Musicalcriticism.com

 

Zipperling, Wauters and Belder are accomplished in the extreme. Their open, polished styles not only work very well together. But they never feel the need to embroider the music as too simple or too similar, one movement to the next. They just let each innovation roll off the page. The contrast, say, between the same A minor's La Mariée and Gavotte [CD.1 tr.s 4,5] is a case in point. The players make the most of a restricted array of instruments to convey a great deal. The technical prowess of gambist, editor, ensemble and soloist as well as recording engineer, Rainer Zipperling, and internationally-renowned performer and recording gambist Ghislaine Wauters and harpsichordist Pieter-Jan Belder mean that they are able to match great confidence with extreme (yet unselfconscious) expressivity.

Mark Sealey, Classical.net

 

Directed by harpsichordist Pieter-Jan Belder, Musica Amphion's recording of Purcell's chamber music on Brilliant Classics should tempt the most impecunious of you. Belder's attractively voiced and elegantly phrased Eight Suites for Harpsichord is the finest aspect, though the five-minute "Fantasia" for three recorders is truly exquisite.

Anna Picard, The Independent