Dutch Composers

[Harry]

Thanks again Sarah, but I see not how to download Pijper, the link does not work......

[Lethevich]

Eek! The filename is a bit long, but the link works fine for me. I'll try Mediafire now that it's working again, it'll mean other people won't have to deal with RS's dl limits.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Thanks again Sarah, but I see not how to download Pijper, the link does not work......

You have to copy-paste the link into the box (you know, where the web address is), then remove the html-extension, and then Enter.

Oh, I almost forgot - thanks, Lethe!

[Harry]

O, dear, not a bit complicated, O, no..........

[Lethevich]

Pijper - Symphony No.1 (Mediafire)

Oh, I almost forgot - thanks, Lethe!

Hehe, I'm just mindlessly regurgitating Operashare links - shame that it's not accessable to the people not lucky enough to sign up before it went private. I also have these files, I can periodically (my upload is slow) host any especially wanted ones:



They are highly unorganised and messy atm.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Just listened to the opening of Pijper's First - I think Vermeulen must have been writing about his Second symphony - this opening is Mahlerian in the extreme, the Mahler of the Wunderhorn symphonies. 'Pijper's Cry' isn't here... I'll listen to the whole symphony later in the evening.

(Btw - the name 'Pijper' sounds a bit like 'Piper')

[pjme]

Hi,
"Pijper's cry" is the very opening of the majestic second symphony. Purists will find much to criticise in this work I suppose- I think it is one of the glories of Dutch symphonic writing! First of all, it is very "un-Dutch"...in its unbridled, almost orgiastic enthusiasm. Stomping rythms, Spanish/South American sultry influennces (  habanera), luxurious & extravagant instrumentation ( 3 pianos, 8 horns, organ, mandolins, percussion...) .It is in every way the opposite of restraint, cool balance à la Mondriaan or protestant ascetism. Pijper packs the whole experience into roughly 20 minutes ! ..and leaves the listener knocked out . great!

Pijper's 3 symphonies would fit on a single CD .

Peter

[Harry]

Sorry about another big post (there may be further ones)... I have a large folder of mp3s from Operashare, and the stand-out ones are compelling me to write about them...

Cornelis Dopper (1870-1939)

Symphony No.1, "Diana" (1895, rev.1921)

Termed "dance symphony" by the composer, this work began as a ballet, and that is more or less what it still sounds like in symphony form. A better term may have been "suite", but that's not important. The work itself is light and springy, and excellent mood music. A few fanfares smattered around (a very Hollywood view of ancient Greece/Rome ), especially in the first movement where they form something resembling a main theme. First movement builds up organically with woodwind fluttering, horn calls, noble/mysterious violin theme building into a little tizzy - all the stock effects, really. It's pulled off well, and creates a fine noble/naturalistic sounding setting.

The craftsman aspect overall is very good, even though it's his first symphony. The transitions and themes aren't as clunky as the previous composer I reviewed, and the music is also more varied, with far more interesting things happening outside of the violin/brass section - much better orchestration. There are also appealing melodies present, although they aren't really developed as in a structured symphony - it's freeform atmospheric music, which is especially delightful in the second movement's dance, though there seem to be a few reoccurring themes throughout some of the movements such as the horn call (maybe a little like Berlioz's idée fixe). Overall the symphony feels very youthful and Romantic, and not entirely similar to his later works (having already heard the 7th symphony while writing this). That is as much an asset as a minus point - the music is a delight, and where there are slightly miscalculated (or banal) parts, you forgive the young composer.

Symphony No.7, "Zuiderzee" (1917)

This is apparently the piece performed before Matthijs Vermeulen caused the scene which put him out of favour with much of the establishment of the time. While it's conservative, it's not THAT derivative. From the start it's attractive, appealing, and has the mark of a composer confident in every aspect of their craft. The formal problems of the 1st aren't an issue in this work (I can't speak for the ones in between, which I haven't heard), and his flowing and lyrical style is not at all inhibited by having to better structure this symphony. Melodies in surging string themes, which are then intertwined by other lines from the orchestra - it's the stuff you expect from great composers, but sometimes miss in obscure ones. This isn't the case with Dopper - he's a good melodist and orchestator, his themes building and combining very successfully.

The second movement is delightful, titled Humoreske, it harks back to pre-Scherzo Menuettos - a bit of bouncy fun. The end of this lilting, march-style movement finishes quite bombastically, something which will occur again at the end of the fourth movement. I can see this putting people off, but with such a talented composer, I find that they fit in well, rather than banging and crashing through otherwise attractive passages of music. I'm not sure how familiar he was with Tchaikovsky, but the march-like louder moments sound a bit like the third movement of the Pathétique. I found the slow third movement to be slightly less distinguished (but will give it many more listens before I give up on it), but this is more than made up for by the finale, which is exceptional.

It begins confidently with a hushed, scuttering tune on the strings soon interrupted by some uneasy sounding swirls from the woodwinds and percussion, before combining with them into a gusting tune, then as quickly as that arrived, a full orchestra theme makes its appearance with brilliant brass accompanying it. To me, this perfectly demonstrates what is so fun, enjoyable, and just plain "great" about symphonic music. It sounds absolutely wonderful, and contains a wealth of ideas. The second half... hehe! This is what will make people either love it or want to vomit. The hilarious peal of brass at 4:48 acts as a brief foreshadow to a high octane finale. The finale is so OTT that is is hard to take it seriously - I just listen to it grinning like an idiot. It's so tuneful, wonderful and foot-stamping fun. I'll upload the movement to show what I mean more effectively than my rather inadequate words: IV. Finale No time to upload the rest today, but I will tomorrow.

I am going to buy CDs by this composer ASAP (I see Chandos has released a few symphony discs, how handy), these symphonies made a big impression on me - the amount of ideas expertly constructed (in the 7th, at least) makes this music advocate itself very well. It's remarkable that Soviet bombast can be considered infinitely more attractive than this old-school imperialist European bombast 0:)

My wife just told me, and proved to me that Dopper is family, of us.
What a coincidence that is huh?

[Harry]

Pijper - Symphony No.1 (Mediafire)

Hehe, I'm just mindlessly regurgitating Operashare links - shame that it's not accessable to the people not lucky enough to sign up before it went private. I also have these files, I can periodically (my upload is slow) host any especially wanted ones:



They are highly unorganised and messy atm.

What a treasure trove it is, yummy.

[The new erato]

What a silly, hard-to-navigate and uninformative website! One would have to be really dedicated to find this useful. I hate flash and designers out to prove their cleverness. A straight HTML site with easily accessible information on their recordings may have made me contemplate actually buying something.

[Thom]

I have been away for a while but I am glad that I came across this thread with the great uploads. Thank you very much Lethe. Playing now the 3d Symphony of Zweers 'Aan mijn vaderland'. Great music. Pijper's Pan Symphony will be next. Being Dutch myself, it is nice to discover this music. Be obliged if you can manage some more uploads, Lethe.

[Lethevich]

I uploaded a bunch of files on the request of a GMG user, and I am reposting the collection here, not expecting it to necessarily be of interest to many people, but on the off-chance that someone else may be interested. These are all broadcasts/OOP CDs from Operashare, which I have reuploaded onto a more friendly host. I'll add the few from previous posts as well, to make them easier to find.

Hendrik Andriessen (1892-1981)

Symphony No.2
I. Fantasia (Quasi adagio)
II. Pavane (Andante con eleganza)
III. Rondo (Allegretto con spirito)
Alexander Vakoulsky, North-Holland Philharmonic Orchestra (Haarlem)
Radio recording from February 1992, transfer from tape

Variations and fugue on a theme by Johann Kuhnau
Ferdinand Leitner, Residentie Orchestra The Hague
From an OOP Olympia cd (OCD 507)

Henk Badings (1907-1987)

Symphony No.2
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Allegro vivace
Hendrik Schaefer, Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra
1-3 December 2004, MCO Studio 1, Hilversum

Symphony No.3
The only info this file had was that it was a "BBC 2007 internet recording".

Symphony No.5
I. Lento - Allegro
II. Scherzo Presto
III. Largo
IV. Presto
Andrew Mogrelia, Residentie Orchestra The Hague
November 1991

Symphonic Prologue
Ed Spanjaard, Residentie Orchestra The Hague
6-9 July 1992, Dr. Anton Philipszaal, The Hague

Symphonic Variations
Henrik Schaefer, Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra
Studio recording, Dutch Radio 4, 2004

Cello Concerto No.2
I. Allegro molto
II. Largo
III. Allegro
Henrik Schaefer (con.), Michael Müller (vnc.), Dutch Radio Chamber Philharmonia
Studio recording, Dutch Radio 4, 2007

Cello Concerto No.2
I. Allegro molto
II. Largo
III. Allegro
Eduard van Beinum (con), Carel van Leeuwen Boomkamp (vnc.)
27/03/1941

Johannes Bernardus van Bree (1801–1857)

Overture in E flat major
Lucas Vis, Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Radio recording, transfer from tape

Scene for horn and orchestra
Hermann Breuer (con.), Ab Koster (hn.), Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie
Digital satellite recording

Fantasie en forme de symphonie
I. Adagio
II. Allegro
III. Andante
IV. Allegro vivace
Tjalling Wijnstra, Dutch New Philharmonic Orchestra
6 June 2006 in the Meinards Church, Minnertsga, The Netherlands, Digital satellite recording

Alphons Diepenbrock  (1862-1921)

Elektra Suite
I. Andante agitato - Adagio
II. Presto - Andantino moderato - Presto
III. Lento - Sostenuto e agitato - Largamente
IV. Allegro agitato - Maestoso
Hans Vonk, WDR-Sinfonieorchester Köln
Studio recording WDR

Cornelis Dopper (1870-1939)

Symphony No.1 "Diana"
I. Gathering of the Gods in the temple of Diana
II. Ball in the knights castle
III. The wandering knight in the wood
IV. In the mountain of Venus
Jürgen Kussmaul, North Netherlands Orchestra
12 February 2005 in Theatre De Muzeval, Emmen, The Netherlands

Symphony No.7 "Zuiderzee"
I. Allegro animato
II. Humoreske
III. Andante rubato
IV. Finale
Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra
December 1990, Vredenburg, Utrecht

Rudolf Escher (1912-1980)

Musique pour l'esprit en deuil
Bernard Haitink, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
February 25, 2005 in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

Passacaglia
George Benjamin, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
October 27, 2006 in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

Carel Anton Fodor (1768-1846)

Symphony in C minor
I. Largo - Allegro assai
II. Adagio non tanto
III. Menuetto (Vivace)
IV. Finale (Vivace agitato)
Antal Dorati, Residentie Orchestra The Hague
Recorded in The Hague, 1978, from a long out of print Olympia CD (OCD 501)

Jan van Gilse (1881-1944)

Symphony No.2
I. Andante – Allegro energico
II. Intermezzo (Allegro grazioso)
III. Finale (Andante molto – Adagio dolente – Andante)
Markus Stenz, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
January  26, 2007, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

Hans Henkemans (1913-1995)

Violin Concerto
I. Allegretto moderato - Allegro agitato
II. Allegro marcato - Tempo di habanera
III. Molto adagio
IV. Allegro
Jaap van Zweden (con.), Liza Ferschtmann (vn.), Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
September 14, 2007 in Central Studios, Utrecht

Daniël de Lange (1841-1918)

Symphony in C minor, Op.4
I. Allegro molto moderato
II. Andante con moto
III. Scherzo (Molto vivace)
IV. Allegro molto vivace
Jac van Steen, Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra
Studio recording, Dutch Radio 4, ca.1997

Willem Pijper (1894-1947)

Symphony No.1
Richard Dufallo, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
March 11, 1983, from a Donemus (Dutch Music Information Centre) LP

Bernard Zweers (1854-1924)

Symphony No.3 "Aan mijn vaderland" (To my fatherland)
I. In the Dutch forests
II. In the country
III. On the beach and at sea
IV. To the capital
Hans Vonk, Residentie Orchestra The Hague
Recorded in 1979, from an OOP Olympia CD

[Thom]

As I told before but I repeat it gladly before my fellow Forum members, I for one am very glad with your uploads since it fills a large gap in my knowledge and understanding of serious Dutch music. Great work, Lethe!

[Harry]

Sarah, you are a treasure, and I am glad that GMG has such a valuable member that puts her time and effort into giving us so many links, just to make us happy.
We owe you gratitude.

Harry

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Thank you very much, Lethe! Great work!

P.S. Just listened to Hendrik Andriessen's 'Kuhnau Variations'. A piece that I heard many years ago and always has stayed with me. Wonderful piece, that any RVW fan would like.

[ChamberNut]

This morning on Espace Musique (French Canadian Classical station), I heard a portion of a Julius Rontgen String Quartet.  Unfortunately, looking bad on the music station's playlist, I could not find what string quartet they played, or who were the performers.   

I really enjoyed what I heard, so this has piqued my curiosity about this composer's chamber music. 

[Dundonnell]

Good heavens!! I started this thread and then forgot about it(stupid me!). Now I find that Lethe has been so very kind as to post links to an absolutely marvellous selection of Dutch orchestral music. Pijper's 1st Symphony, the Henk Badings, the Dopper, the van Gilse....oh, joy indeed.

Must get busy before I wake up and find that it has all been a dream!!

Many, many thanks!!

[Lethevich]

I'm not sure how long Mediafire links last, but fortunately you DLing from some should at least keep those ones alive for a while longer

Edit:

Having earlier been a bit dismissive of Dopper I had best go back and give him another go!

I must also add as a followup that my praise of Dopper's 7th has waned slightly. It is indeed far from "deep", but the sheer sound of the thing is still a joy to behold - like Shostakovich's 5th minus the philosophy/difficulty

[Dundonnell]

I have managed to download the Badings, Dopper's 1st symphony and the van Gilse symphonies and other orchestral works.

Unfortunately, however, the last movement of Dopper's 7th, the de Lange and the Zweers all appear to have been removed from Mediafire!

The Pijper 1st Symphony is a RAR file. I am not familiar with this-sorry, bit of a technophobe! Any help?

[Lethevich]

A rar is a type of zip file, it's pretty standard and you'll probably run into it again in future, so it's worth the small download:

http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm (the top one)

I'll reupload those movements and any others you run into problems with.

Edit: Actually damn! I forgot, my PC is having problems with my external hard drive at the moment, and that is where I have all the files from this thread. I may take a while to sort this out