You can be carried by a sentence, you can feel a word. I speak your name... if someone is absent, whether a meter and a half away or even gone behind the horizon, we need only utter their name to bring back memories, hope and love. The language of music also has this power to move. And, therefore, what better title for this CD?

I speak your name is a poem by Sophie Jewett, which was set to music for us by Renske Vrolijk. Renske was not the only one who wrote for us: many of her colleagues have blessed us with beautiful compositions for voice and harmonium in recent years. With this recording we can perform their songs over and over again, hold them close and cherish them. The sound-poems of Herman Strategier and Max Reger, the only foreign guest on this CD, hark back to a more distant past. The Rilke Songs by Andries van Rossem sparked our desire to make this CD.

Soprano Francine van der Heijden is a performer of Lieder, oratorio and opera. Among her many CD recordings is the world premiere of Mendelssohn’s concert aria “Infelice! Ah ritorno eta dell’oro” (Claves). Dirk Luijmes, who took conservatory degrees in organ, harpsichord and church music and a university degree in musicology, is active in various fields in the music world. He has come to the fore as one of very few musicians in the world who perform professionally on the harmonium.