Kuijken Two Generations - Beethoven: String Quartets op. 59/3 'Razumovsky', String Quintet op. 29 (2007) Hi-Res

This recording, by two generations of musicians from the Kuijken family (Veronica, Sigiswald, Sara and Wieland Kuijken), along with Sigiswald's wife Marleen Thiers, was made with so-called 'modern' instruments. Although their name is generally linked with 'period performance practice', listeners should not expect or seek a deliberate, specific 'historic' tendency in this recording. This was not what defined the collaboration for this production. In fact the group allowed itself to be moved and motivated by the immense strength exuded by these Beethoven pieces, based on its own musical experience and intuition.

Wieland Kuijken obtained a Higher Certificate in cello at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in 1959, and taught himself to play viola da gamba and 17th and 18th century performance practice. He has often worked together with his two brothers Barthold and Sigiswald and harpsichordist Robert Kohnen. His brother Sigiswald studied violin at the Conservatories of Bruges and Brussels. He also discovered early music at a very young age and mastered the specific 17th and 18th century performing techniques and interpretation conventions. His technique of playing baroque violin has been adopted by many musicians since the early 1970s. In 1972 he founded the internationally renowned baroque orchestra La Petite Bande. Marleen Thiers plays first viola in La Petite Bande and is a cofounder and viola player with the Two Generations Kuijken.

Sigiswald daughter Sara Kuijken studied viola at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, where she obtained a 1st prize in 1989 and in 1992 the Higher Certificate magna cum laude. Together with seven other musicians, she founded the Oxalys chamber music ensemble, in which she played viola and served as artistic director until 1998. This ensemble released two CDs, with impressionist and with contemporary Russian chamber music. Her father Sigiswald Kuijken gave her some baroque violin instruction in 1994, and she is now a regular member of La Petite Bande. Veronica Kuijken went to the Brussels conservatory at the age of 16 in the piano class of Daniel Blumenthal. After two years of violin lessons, and privately tutoring for seven years she continued her studies in London and obtained a master's degree in violin in September 1998. Veronica has regularly played with the Kammerorchester Basel since 2000.