Conductor Jan Stulen (1942 - 2017) made countless recordings for radio and television during his lifetime. Radio producer Okke Dijkhuizen, who worked with him a lot in the 80s and 90s, discovered a treasure trove of bequeathed radio recordings, made for the then Hilversum 4. He was so struck by the quality of these that he started a project to release the recordings on CD. This resulted, early February '22, in a box containing no less than 6 CDs. The CD box is accompanied by excellent documentation, to be found in a bilingual booklet.

The CDs feature recordings of exceptionally beautiful and varied music, played by the radio orchestras under Stulen's inspiring direction. Works by great masters such as Schumann, Ravel, Glazunov, Brahms, Elgar and Shostakovich are interspersed with all kinds of surprising, lesser known works and some Dutch compositions. All this gives a good picture of the craftsmanship and the enormous versatility of Jan Stulen, and makes listening to these CDs a great pleasure.

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> View the booklet, with notes and an overview of recordings and performing musicians

Jan Stulen was born in Amsterdam in 1942. He studied at the then Amsterdamse Muzieklyceum (now: Conservatorium Amsterdam). In 1961 he conducted his first public concert as a student. From 1964 to 1970 he worked in various positions at the Städtische Bühnen Münster, Germany. There he gained extensive experience in all areas of music theatre. In 1970 he returned to the Netherlands to become, successively, principal conductor of the Netherlands Ballet Orchestra (now Holland Symfonia), musical director of the Netherlands Dance Theatre and permanent conductor of the public broadcasting company in Hilversum. In this position, he made numerous radio and TV recordings with all the broadcasting orchestras. For years, he conducted the TV series Jonge mensen op het concertpodium and Una Voce Particolare. He was also the permanent conductor of the WDR Rundfunk Orchester from 1986 to 1996.
During the same period, he was a permanent guest conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Flanders. From 1989 to 2000 he was principal conductor of the Deutsches Kammer Orchester Frankfurt am Main. He held the same position with the Nederlands Promenade Orkest in Amsterdam until 2003. He was also artistic advisor to Opera Forum, now Nationale Reisopera. Since 2003, he has been permanent conductor and artistic advisor of L'Orchestra Particolare. He has conducted orchestras and opera companies throughout Europe, Egypt, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand.
Besides his work as a performing musician, Stulen has been intensively involved in the education of young conductors.
Jan Stulen has conducted an enormously varied repertoire, from baroque to symphonic jazz, with ensembles of very different signature. Stulen was appreciated by orchestra musicians for his clear technique and efficient way of rehearsing. This enabled him to quickly and clearly convey his musical intentions to the performing musicians.