Jos van Immerseel

Jos van Immerseel stands out among period-instrument keyboardists through his performances on both clavicembalo and fortepiano. His training took place at Antwerp’s Royal Conservatory under Eugene Tracy, Flor Peeters, and Kenneth Gilbert, resulting in first-prize awards for piano, organ, and harpsichord during the decade spanning 1961 to 1971. A series of competition victories marked those years, with the highlight arriving as victory in the first Paris Forum International de Clavecin in 1973. Worldwide demand for his solo appearances persists, occasionally requiring him to transport his personal fortepiano, where audiences appreciate his sensitivity to musical nuance alongside his flair for improvisation. To deepen his engagement with Renaissance and Baroque repertoire, he established the Collegium Musicum in Antwerp and directed both that group and the Collegium Vocale. The year 1985 saw the creation of Anima Eterna, a period-instrument orchestra he leads from the keyboard. Although his primary focus remains music from the Classical and early Romantic periods, he has also committed to disc the songs of Fauré alongside Max van Egmond, selections by Debussy with Sandrine Piau, and compositions by César Franck. Frequent collaborators include Vera Beths and Anner Bylsma, particularly in their accounts of Schubert’s chamber music.

His activities extend beyond the stage and studio to include authorship of articles and reviews, creation of radio programs, and pedagogical work. Positions held encompass teaching posts at the Antwerp Conservatory and Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, instructional sessions utilizing the instruments housed at Antwerp’s Vleeshuis Museum through its academy, and, since 1992, membership on the faculty of the Paris Conservatoire.

Channel Classics and Sony number among the labels issuing his recordings. The Beethoven piano concerto performances captured with Tafelmusik drew attention for the cadenzas he himself composed to suit the expressive range of the period instrument. Yet his recording of Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ in its fortepiano arrangement counts among his most distinguished accomplishments.