Erik Bosgraaf - Video

In August 2019, coming together with composers Antti Auvinen and Josephine Stephenson, Borletti-Buitoni Trust artists the Dudok Quartet and recorder-player Erik Bosgraaf – as well as mezzo Michaela Reiner – workshopped a programme based on the life of Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi.

Artemisia and her dramatic story, let alone her works of art, will come into more focus with the National Gallery in London’s major exhibition devoted to her from April 2020, and the musicians were intrigued by the way she perfected the art of revenge in her paintings. This short film presents a work-in-progress snapshot as they work on a staged concert about Artemisia. The workshop was hosted in the convivial surroundings of Snape Maltings.

Read Erik Bosgraaf’s blog about the Artemisia Project workshop here

Recorded live at his recent Borletti Buitoni Trust Wednesdays at Wilton’s concert on 29 April 2015, Erik Bosgraaf plays works from four centuries of recorder music. Jacob van Eyck, from the 17th century, is joined by Louis Andriessen and Luciano Berio from the 20th, and – to end – one of Erik’s own improvisations.

Dutch recorder player Erik Bosgraaf enthuses over Wilton’s Music Hall. the genesis of the world première he played there – Tomi Räisänen’s Dive, the pleasures of doing workshops with young recorder players and the surprising ways you can play the instrument.

The recorder, around since medieval times and at its peak in the baroque era, has become an instrument for the 21st century in the skilled hands of master maker Ernst Meyer. Shot in Amsterdam and Paris, this film succinctly shows Erik Bosgraaf’s virtuosity, musicianship and passion, alongside the mastery and magic of Meyer in the workshop where he refines the new instrument that BBT has funded. With improved strength of sound and tone, the recorder is now a candidate for modern repertoire in symphonic halls.