HENDRIK BOUMAN - COMPOSER / PERFORMER
of music in styles prevalent in 17th & 18th Century Europe

"."Of the composition and improvisation in the styles of 17th & 18th Century Europe for which he is renowned, he says... style is not necessarily locked up in a period in time."
- Oxford Times UK, February 2008

"I did look at Hendrik Bouman's website and heard his music. I think it's the best example of that type of composition I ever heard (so often, writing in an earlier style sounds obviously fake). I have admired him as a player since my earliest 'baroque' days, when he was the heart and soul of Musica Antiqua Köln."
- Andrew Manze, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, English Concert, February 2008

"What you have done so far has been excellent -- the concerts you've put on and this event yesterday. I was glad the Festival Montréal Baroque was able to accommodate your wonderful contributions."
- Bruce Haynes, Author of "The End of Early Music", Oxford University Press, June 2007
       [2006-07 Season with Baroque SaMuse including12 premieres]

"Hendrik Bouman is a fantastic harpsichordist and a fantastic 21st Century baroque composer."
- Susie Napper, Artistic Director of the Festival Montréal Baroque, June 2007

"Hendrik Bouman, the Master."
- Miguel Robaina, Director of the Scharffeneck Collection, Sweden, July 2007

"As a performer and a contemporary baroque composer, Hendrik Bouman is an extremely talented man. He could be taken for one of the Masters [of the 18th century].”
- Fen Watkin, Order of Canada, The Guardian, Charlottetown, Canada, October 2004

"This piece that you have just played, this improvisation, could just as well have been part of the great baroque repertoire.”
- Anne Monteron, Radio France / France Musiques, Cité de la Musique Paris, February 2003

"Time stands still with his compositions."
- Veluws Dagblad, Holland, September 1997

"Beautiful and such technique, your harpsichord sounds like a grand."
- Max van Egmond, Baryton, Professor Amsterdam Conservatory
    [Holland Concert Tour 1997, Italian harpsichord by Hendrik Bouman 1996]   [return to top of page]

HENDRIK BOUMAN - HARPSICHORD, FORTEPIANO, ORGAN

"We were extremely grateful to Hendrik Bouman for stepping in at short notice and playing suberbly."
- Dr. Jon Whiteley, Deputy Curator, Western Art, Ashmolean Museum Oxford, UK, November 2007
        [on the 1772 Kirckman harpsichord for the Friends of the Ashmolean Museum]

"Hendrik is a performer of great class. "
- Johanne Goyette, Director of the ATMA label, Montréal, January 2007

"His reputation as continuo player is legendary in North America & Europe. As a soloist he is no less impressive, and he maintains this consistency on most keyboard instruments."
- Christopher Jackson, Former Dean of Fine Arts Concordia University, Montréal & Founding-Director of the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, 2005

"Hendrik Bouman, one of the best harpsichordists in the world."
- ATV Halifax, August, 1999

"The 'Prestige Concert' with the soprano Nancy Argenta and the fortepianist Hendrik Bouman was the best event of the Mozart Festival of the Montreal Opera."
- Le Devoir, Montréal, May 1991

"...that extraordinary harpsichordist Hendrik Bouman, whom we have known for many years with Reinhard Goebel [Musica Antiqua Köln]."D
- Diapason, Paris, April 1990

HENDRIK BOUMAN - CONDUCTOR

"Hendrik Bouman, guest director, provided sensitive leadership in Saturday’s superb performance of Handel’s Messiah. He appeared to work on an enormous and colourful canvas. Bouman’s tempi glittered, faithful to the dances that inspired much of the baroque musical idiom. This undercurrent of life and movement swept the work along on a crest of energy. The vitality of the performance was compelling and untiring. The result was a Messiah that was intelligent, jubilant, musical and highly civilized."
- The Oregonian, Portland USA, December 1990

"WHEN THE TEMPLE OF THE PEOPLE WELCOMES ANCIENT MUSIC
...everything centered around the exceptional personality of Hendrik Bouman. Literally inhabited by music, he is a veritable source of inspiration for the musicians he directs, as well as for the audience that listens. He possesses a sense of rhythm, of respiration, of phrasing and of colour, one encounters very rarely. He has revealed himself to be a very gifted communicator and an extraordinary charmer of the masses."
- Le Devoir, Montréal, August 1988
   [Concerts Populaires d'Été de la Ville de Montréal - audience of 5000 people in a Stadium]

"Bouman obtained not only a remarkable coordination from all the musicians, but also a perfect unity of style and vision. The result is precise, energetic and expressive, and his choice of tempi is always right. In Haydn [Symphony 102], the emotion expressed in the Adagio (yes I mean emotion, like in Bruno Walter’s interpretation), and later the humour in the final Presto was, by no means, by chance."
- La Presse, Montréal, September 1987

"MOZART REDISCOVERED
Better still: Hendrik Bouman infused this familiar music [of Mozart’s] with such rhythmic vitality and originality of accentuation, that he made us somehow rediscover it."
- La Presse, Montréal, June 1987

"TO THE GLORY OF LULLY"
"Happily, all the instrumental music was in good hands, those of Orchestre Les Nations de Montréal directed by Hendrik Bouman. Mr. Bouman played the exacting harpsichord part with remarkable mastery throughout."
- Le Devoir, Montréal, May 1987 [20th Century World Première of the opera Amadis by Lully]

"THREE HOURS FOR 300 YEARS OF LULLY starring Les Nations".
"Friday night was the appropriate crowning event of the season. The Nations set very high standards that night. What I heard on the radio was as good and as beautiful as anything we hear on recordings from the best foreign early music ensembles."
- La Presse, Montréal, May 1987 [20th Century World Première of the opera Amadis by Lully]

"This performance of Lully's Amadis is comparable from all points of view, to the best productions of this genre worldwide. Mr. Bouman contributed his unique qualities as musician, engaging the audience with enthusiasm through his sober and luminous vision of the musical score, both in the orchestral sections as in those with the more intimate solo ensembles."
- Radio Canada, Producer, Jacques Boucher, May 1987
  [20th Century World Première of the opera Amadis by Lully]

"LES NATIONS: A HIT WITH ALL-BACH CONCERT.
To supply something distinctive within the limits of the no longer novel authentic genre would be a tall order. Hendrik Bouman and Les Nations succeeded in this task early. In terms of intonation, togetherness, semantic organisation and lyric impulse, the orchestra gave performances that can stand with those of celebrated rival organisations overseas and south of the border. "
- The Gazette, Montréal, March 1987

"The most elaborate of the weekend’s musical events took place within the impressive walls of the Notre Dame Basilica, and brought together several hundred choristers, fifty instrumentalists, soloists Chantal Rémillard and Alain Pièrard and over 2000 spectators in a giant celebration of music - the Québec mass 'Tu me cherches' by Alain Pièrard, prayer and communion. Coordinating the various components was a feat in itself and the conductor Hendrik Bouman, who is an early music specialist, managed the task magnificently."
- The Gazette, Montréal, April 1983    [return to top of page]

CD REVIEWS

HENDRIK BOUMAN - LITTLE NOTEBOOK FOR ANNA I & II
      17th & 18th Century style compositions for piano and harpsichord, Baroque-Nouveau