Flemish Radio Choir
The Netherlands Radio Choir is one of the best known large permanent professional choral organizations in the world, known for having command of virtually any choral style of any era in musical history. Its existence arises from the unusual organization and history of Dutch radio broadcastings.
The Netherlands has one of the longest records of radio broadcasting on a worldwide scale. For its internal radio broadcasting the country steered a middle course between the American system of a myriad local commercial stations (some organized into networks) and the European tendency to establish a single government-funded broadcasting organization. Instead, programming was placed into a number of independent radio organizations who share broadcasting facilities, including musical staff.
Holland was the first European country to initiate regularly scheduled short-wave radio broadcasting of news and entertainment programs. This was not a government program, but an initiative of the large electronics firm Philips, whose initial interest was to stimulate a world market for its radio receiving sets. The first broadcasts, in 1927, were to the Netherlands' East Indies, the country's primary overseas possession (now the nation of Indonesia). Although Indonesia has been independent for over half a century, Radio Netherland's broadcasts remain popular in Indonesia as the main independent source of news in that country of many languages spread over thousands of islands.
In 1928, Philips started a second foreign language service, PCJJ, making an international personality of announcer Edward Startz, who established the channel's image as the "Happy Station," and said the call sign stood for "Peace, Cheer, and Joy."
PCJJ's transmitters were captured undamaged by the Nazi troops when they invaded Holland in May 1940. They made the powerful transmitters into their primary voice beamed to Asia, under the control of Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels. Countering it was the Dutch exile government in London, using the BBC's facilities, which initiated "Radio Oranje" to bring truthful news to the Dutch populace. This war of truth versus propaganda instilled in the Dutch a strong appreciation for broadcasting that is factually and politically impartial and accurate. Henk van den Broek, head of Radio Oranje, was asked to create a new multi-language radio service. The result was the Radio Netherlands Foundation, which began broadcasting on April 15, 1947.
Music for Netherlands radio operations is provided by the MCO (Musikcentrum von de Omroep), which means Broadcasting Music Center. Among the several musical ensembles it maintains is the Netherlands Radio Choir.
The Choir is a very busy fully professional choir of seventy-nine permanent members. This makes it one of the largest professional choirs in the world. It therefore affords steady work that attracts some of the finest choral singers in the world, who work in the MCO Building in Hilversum. Ninety percent of their work is for concerts for the various broadcasting organizations, including Radio Netherlands. Most of this work is live; there is very little broadcasting of studio recordings.
Netherlands Radio Choir often sings with the various radio orchestras (Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Radio Chamber Orchestra) and ensembles (Netherlands Radio Boys Choir, Metropole Orchestra) also maintained by the MCO and is frequently invited to perform with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. It rarely tours abroad, due to its heavy schedule of work at the Hilversum studios. It has a unique reputation for being able to sing virtually anything written for large choral forces.
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Discography
19 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Louise Bertin: Fausto
Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset, Flemish Radio Choir
Classical - Released by Bru Zane on 26 Jan 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Spontini: La vestale
Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset, Flemish Radio Choir
Classical - Released by Bru Zane on 12 May 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Fauré : Requiem - Gounod : Les 7 Paroles du Christ sur la croix
Brussels Philharmonic, Flemish Radio Choir, Hervé Niquet
Classical - Released by Evil Penguin Classic on 29 Sep 2014
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Spontini: Olimpie
Flemish Radio Choir, Le Cercle De L'Harmonie, Jérémie Rhorer
Classical - Released by Bru Zane on 22 Mar 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Halévy : La Reine de Chypre
Orchestre de chambre de Paris, Hervé Niquet, Flemish Radio Choir
Full Operas - Released by Bru Zane on 11 May 2018
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns : Proserpine
Flemish Radio Choir, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Ulf Schirmer
Full Operas - Released by Bru Zane on 12 May 2017
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov, S.: Liturgy of St John Chrysostom ( Anonymous - Sergei Rachmaninov)
Classical - Released by Glossa on 1 Jan 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dreaming of a White Christmas
Flemish Radio Choir, Hervé Niquet
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Brussels Philharmonic Recordings on 7 Dec 2015
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Dukas: Cantates, chœurs et musique symphonique
Flemish Radio Choir, Brussels Philharmonic, Hervé Niquet
Classical - Released by Bru Zane on 13 Nov 2015
QobuzissimeGramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
La Tombelle: Musique chorale, de chambre, symphonique
Brussels Philharmonic, Flemish Radio Choir, Hervé Niquet
Classical - Released by Bru Zane on 8 Nov 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gounod : Cantates et musique sacrée
Flemish Radio Choir, Brussels Philharmonic, Hervé Niquet
Cantatas (sacred) - Released by Bru Zane on 12 Jan 2018
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Victorin Joncières : Dimitri
Flemish Radio Choir, Flanders Opera Children's Chorus, Brussels Philharmonic, Hervé Niquet
Classical - Released by Bru Zane on 29 Jun 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
David: Herculanum
Flemish Radio Choir, Brussels Philharmonic, Hervé Niquet
Classical - Released by Bru Zane on 4 Sep 2015
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Kodaly, Z.: Missa Brevis / Geneva Psalm 121 / Geneva Psalm 114 / Jesus and the Traders / Transylvanian Lament (Zoltan Kodaly)
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by Glossa on 1 Jan 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Max d'Ollone: Cantates, chœurs et musique symphonique
Flemish Radio Choir, Brussels Philharmonic, Hervé Niquet
Classical - Released by Bru Zane on 29 Jan 2013
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Motets (Johann Gramann - Johann Sebastian Bach)
Classical - Released by Glossa on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I Colori della Gioia (1)
Brussels Philharmonic, Flemish Radio Choir, Sarah Van Mol, Kai-Rouven Seeger
Classical - Released by Aliud Records on 26 Nov 2018
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Brossé: Juanelo 'Charles V-Oratorio'
Flemish Radio Choir, Flemish Radio Orchestra
Classical - Released by Etcetera on 11 Aug 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mater Dolorosa
Marie Terese Letorney, Flemish Radio Choir, Royal Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra, Grant Llewellyn
Opera - Released by Marco-Polo on 21 Apr 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo