Wind, Thiemo - Adriana

130-page book (14 x 19,5 cm) in english language with 50 illustrations and a CD with 85 minutes of playing time.

This special production is both a book and a CD. Together they tell - with equal weight - the extraordinary story of Adriana vanden Bergh, an Amsterdam child prodigy on the recorder in the Golden Age. She was only 13 or even 12 years old when the music publisher Paulus Matthijsz dedicated a music book to her in 1644, "Der gods flute-hem".  Adriana's identity remained a mystery for centuries. Until the musicologist Thiemo Wind discovered not only who she was, but also that she was portrayed by none other than Jacob Backer, a famous contemporary of Rembrandt. It is one of the most beautiful portraits of the Dutch Golden Age. Backer depicted her as Euterpe, the mythological muse of instrumental music. Next to her on the table are three recorders and a music book that can be identified as the work of Salamone Rossi. On the CD, Erik Bosgraaf and his ensemble Cordevento play both Italian (Rossi, Uccellini, Merula and others) and Dutch works (Padbrué, Huygens, Jacob van Eyck, De Vois and others) that were played and loved by Adriana. Her biography, however, reads like an exciting novel. Did she marry the right man?