Many people living in Amsterdam know Meindert Hobbema. Possibly not because of his paintings, but because of the street of the same name. He’s not the most famous of Dutch landscape artists, but his works are still worth looking out for. Hobbema lived in the 17th century in Amsterdam, and was a pupil of the more famous landscape artist Jacob van Ruisdael.
The cover shows part of a painting by Hobbema, called De watermolen (the watermill). Hobbema painted more than thirty watermills during his life. This one strikes me as particularly nice looking and romantic. One can almost hear the water when looking at it.
The recording is not that good I think. Nice choice of works, sure, but it was published in 1965 and still in monaural sound. It must have been a cheap introduction to chamber music that was also published elsewhere. A bit like a ‘best of’ for the label of that year. A bit disappointing really.