BRISK Recorder Quartet Amsterdam
Alide Verheij, Susanna Borsch, Marjan Banis and Bert Honig, recorders
Brisk Recorder Quartet Amsterdam was a well-known Dutch recorder quartet, which gave its last concert on 24 December 2023.
The ensemble had the following members:
From 1986 to 1992
Bert Honig, Saskia Ouwehand, Alide Verheij and Jantien Westerveld
From 1992 to 2004
Marjan Banis, Bert Honig, Alide Verheij and Jantien Westerveld
From 2004 to 2014
Marjan Banis, Saskia Coolen, Bert Honig and Alide Verheij
From 2014 to 2023
Marjan Banis, Susanna Borsch, Bert Honig and Alide Verheij
BRISK, the ensemble’s name, is intended to convey an idea of liveliness and wakefulness. A critic once described the ensemble as providing “a coup de grâce for the recorder’s respectable image”. BRISK’s concerts exhibited variation of style and mood, virtuosity and light-heartedness in equal measure. The quartet always appeared on stage with an enormous assembly of recorders.
Since their founding in 1986, BRISK gave many concerts in important concert halls and festivals throughout Europe, in Bolivia, Canada and the USA. BRISK has recorded for radio and television both in the Netherlands and abroad, as well as recording seventeen CDs that have been well received by both press and public.
Its daring programming of early music in combination with contemporary music was designed to expand the borders of the ensemble’s repertoire. Many composers dedicated works to the quartet. BRISK worked regularly with fellow musicians as well as with artists from other related disciplines such as actors, directors, librettists and film-makers.
BRISK made its name through lively performances of early music, the search for little-known repertoire, and the many arrangements that the ensemble has made, which suit the style and tradition of the instrument. BRISK collaborated with Amaryllis Dieltiens, Michael Chance, Marcel Beekman, Johannette Zomer, Maarten Koningsberger, the Egidius Kwartet, the Gesualdo Consort, Bernard Winsemius, Leo van Doeselaar, Rainer Zipperling, Mike Fentross and Camerata Trajectina amongst others.
The long list of composers that have written music for the quartet includes Martijn Padding, Kate Moore, Calliope Tsoupaki, Bart Visman, Klaas de Vries, Roderik de Man and many others.
New works were presented as a comment on or as a contrast to older works in BRISK’s programmes. There was also a large quantity of new music in BRISK’s programmes for younger audiences. BRISK regularly gave concerts in collaboration with specialists in contemporary music such as pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama, composer and improviser Guus Janssen, vocalist Greetje Bijma and percussionist Ramon Lormans.
BRISK created a number of highly successful productions for children with directors David Prins, Jetse Batelaan, Marc Krone, Gienke Deuten and actors Porgy Franssen, Bart Kiene and Hans Thissen.
The quartet possessed a great variety of instruments; its extensive contacts with recorder makers throughout the world ensured that its collection was in a state of continual development. This variety of instruments enabled the ensemble to perform works from the Renaissance and the Baroque as well as the 20th and 21st centuries in their correct tuning and with the correct timbre.