For Het Collectief, Mahler’s Song of the Earth will always remain connected to the accursed year 2020. And not just because of the corona crisis. When we had finished the recording session at the beginning of January, we did not know that our conductor, and the arranger of this new Mahler transcription Reinbert de Leeuw, would die a good month later.

We have been in the throes of the virus for almost a year now and a remarkable paradox is beginning to emerge. After the umpteenth postponed, adjusted and eventually cancelled concert, our courage sometimes sinks in our shoes. But the enthusiasm to make music together has never been as great as now.

Hommage to Reinbert

Reinbert de Leeuw (NL - 1938-2020) brilliant conductor, composer and arranger, made an exceptionally refined arrangement for 15 instrumentalists and 2 soloists of Gustav Mahler’s 'Das Lied von der Erde'. This arrangement had never been recorded but it's been made with Het Collectief (B) and soloists Lucile Richardot (F) and Yves Saelens (B).