Janacek Sinfonietta/Dvorak New World

Anima Eterna Brugge

Out There records

GIVE your system a bit of a jolt and try this: I was electrified. Can I give the highest recognition to this latest disc by Belgian band Anima Eterna, with performances of Dvorak’s New World Symphony, with its wonderful clarity and immediacy, and to an astounding performance of Janacek’s Sinfonietta, which takes the music to its earthiest Moravian roots, and will have you out of your seat with its devastating mix of sophistication and raw excitement? I’ve listened to it countless times already and cannot get it out of my mind. It scorches me. The band, Anima Eterna Brugge, is a crack period band that is a Flanders flagship, run by a genius, conductor Jos van Immerseel. It’s one of those bands that does its research and equips itself with instruments as close as possible in type to the instruments of the period of the composition. The results here are physically and aurally revelatory. The Janacek is volcanic.

Michael Tumelty