Jaap ter Linden is one of the relatively large number of musicians from Holland involved in the early music revival of the post-war period; he has devoted himself to historically-informed performance on period instruments, examining both Baroque and classical repertory. After his initial training at The Hague’s Royal Conservatory, he soon found himself playing in a number of Baroque bands such as Musica Antiqua Köln, The English Concert and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Active equally as a cellist, violist and conductor, he cofounded Musica da Camera and formed the Mozart Akademie in Amsterdam, which soon embarked upon a well-received project to record the complete Mozart symphonies. As a conductor and soloist he has worked with numerous period instrument groups, including the European Union Baroque Orchestra, the Philharmonia Baroque, Arion Baroque Orchestra and the Portland Baroque Orchestra. He has also been engaged in opera direction, including works by Gluck and Purcell.

Linden, who teaches at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Hochschule für Alte Musik in Würzburg, has also collaborated with a number of notable performers of early music including violinists Elizabeth Wallfisch and Andrew Manze and harpsichordists Richard Egarr, Ton Koopman and Lars Ulrik Mortensen.

His recordings include the Bach Cello Suites (twice) and Viola da gamba Sonatas (with Egarr), and Buxtehude’s complete chamber music (1994). The latter represents a major contribution to the repertory of recorded cello works; Linden’s playing on the three sonatas selected here has a pleasing lightness and transparency of tone as he demonstrates his authority and executive reliability in embodying characteristics of early Baroque style. A sonatina attributed to Augustinus Kertzinger (Kapellmeister at Prague’s St Vitus Cathedral in the mid-seventeenth century) shows off the skills of the gamba player as soloist and is given an imaginative and lively reading by Linden on an album of lesser-known works (2000). Also discussed elsewhere in this volume is a fine performance of a sonata by Uccellini with Linden’s direct contemporary and compatriot, Lucy van Dael. Linden’s significance as one of the most important and well known exponents of period instrument performance should not be underestimated.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Milsom (A–Z of String Players, Naxos 8.558081-84)