Dutch Composers

Started by Dundonnell, August 11, 2007, 04:13:48 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Robert on January 27, 2015, 02:13:13 PM
John
Olympia released four volumes  "400 Years Of Dutch Music" plus the one mentioned above "Dutch Masters".  It might be difficult to find....

Robert

Hey Robert, Olympia recordings are difficult to track down for good prices. I wish more Pijper was available. He's regarded as one of the greatest Dutch composers of the first half of the 20th Century.

Klaze

Quote from: Mirror Image on January 27, 2015, 01:45:39 PM
I've been wondering when Etcetera were going to reissue this set. Just bought it! Thanks, Klaze.

Great! hope you enjoy it.

Quote from: Mirror Image on January 27, 2015, 02:16:28 PM
Hey Robert, Olympia recordings are difficult to track down for good prices. I wish more Pijper was available. He's regarded as one of the greatest Dutch composers of the first half of the 20th Century.

Pijper has some very nice works, but I find Escher and Vermeulen to be more inspired overall.
I'm not sure, but I think his reputation is also based to a large extent on his influence on other Dutch composers and also on his role as critic and his other functions within the musical establishment.
But yea, a little Pijper goes a long way, I had to resort to vinyl to collect his works. But i think i got most of it covered now.

Anyone familiar with Ton de Leeuw? This is enjoyable stuff as well:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1jO2TurwUQ

Mirror Image

Quote from: Klaze on January 28, 2015, 10:01:57 AM
Great! hope you enjoy it.

Pijper has some very nice works, but I find Escher and Vermeulen to be more inspired overall.
I'm not sure, but I think his reputation is also based to a large extent on his influence on other Dutch composers and also on his role as critic and his other functions within the musical establishment.
But yea, a little Pijper goes a long way, I had to resort to vinyl to collect his works. But i think i got most of it covered now.

Anyone familiar with Ton de Leeuw? This is enjoyable stuff as well:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1jO2TurwUQ

Cool, thanks for the recommendations. I'll check out Escher and Vermeulen. I've heard of both of these composers, but I haven't heard any of their music.

Christo

Quote from: Mirror Image on January 28, 2015, 06:05:36 PM
Cool, thanks for the recommendations. I'll check out Escher and Vermeulen. I've heard of both of these composers, but I haven't heard any of their music.

Both are fine composers and especially Vermeulen (try the first two symphonies to start with, and how completely different they are) has his own fan club. I would personally recommend to 'start' with Orthel (Second and Third Symphonies especially) and also Hendrik Andriessen. Yes, father of, and more and more respected by the son as the special composer (and great man) he was.

Here's the son listening in the audience to his father's Ricercare (after 23 seconds): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwbZz7NSTMA
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

J.Z. Herrenberg

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Klaze

Quote from: Mirror Image on January 28, 2015, 06:05:36 PM
Cool, thanks for the recommendations. I'll check out Escher and Vermeulen. I've heard of both of these composers, but I haven't heard any of their music.

Nice, as Christo said, for Vermeulen, definitely check out Symphony No.2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJaQRPKt_X8

Escher is not a composer that I immediately appreciated, not because he is so experimental or anything, but because he is usually quite subtle and not the type of guy who goes for spectacular effects or keeps hitting you with a catchy theme. I think that most people tend to be more into orchestral works here?, but in my opinion Escher's best works are mainly chamber music, try the Sonata concertante for cello and piano for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU0enDCMESY

Musique pour lésprit en deuil is a nice orchestral work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb6hpFkzwDw

But in all honesty, I could recommend a bunch of Escher works. I really think his, rather small, oeuvre is of a consistently very high quality.

vandermolen

#346
I have enjoyed the works of Alfons Diepenbrock too largely thanks to Christo.
[asin]B000QCQ7M2[/asin]
The inexpensive set above is a great way to discover this late romantic composer. I love the Caspar David Friedrich cover art too.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Mirror Image

Thanks, Johan, Klaze, and everyone else for your recommendations.

Mirror Image

Quote from: vandermolen on January 29, 2015, 02:46:14 PM
I have enjoyed the works of Alfons Diepenbrock too largely thanks to Christo.
[asin]B000QCQ7M2[/asin]
The inexpensive set above is a great way to discover this late romantic composer. I love the Caspar David Friedrich cover art too.

Of course, if people want to splurge on Diepenbrock, they'll need to get this set:



I haven't began to dig into the treasures in this set, but I really like the orchestral works and songs. Beautiful music. Kind of a happy medium stylistically between R. Strauss and Debussy.

pjme


http://youtu.be/P-o8sDVkVLg

Escher's Hymne du grand Meaulnes is an alltime favorite . Sadness, mystery, youthfull longing....Wonderful!

Peter

Christo

Quote from: pjme on January 30, 2015, 03:52:58 AMhttp://youtu.be/P-o8sDVkVLg Escher's Hymne du grand Meaulnes is an alltime favorite . Sadness, mystery, youthfull longing....Wonderful! Peter

Good to be reminded of the piece again. And also, to discover that it's finally available on CD too:
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

vandermolen

Have we discussed the music of Jan van Gilse (1881-1944) whose Third Symphony (1909) I have just discovered? It has a Mahlerian quality to it and also reminded me a bit of the music of one of my very favourite composers Vitezslav Novak. The symphony lasts over an hour and uses a soprano soloist in two of its movements. It would appeal to admirers of Richard Strauss too I guess and those to whom opulent late Romanticism has an appeal. He did not have an easy life during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands as he refused to collaborate with the German occupiers and his two sons were executed because of their involvement with the resistance movement in the Netherlands. The composer also joined the underground movement:
[asin]B007HOEZ7Q[/asin]
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

André

Post # 71 of this thread: symphony no 2.

I have the 4th on CPO. Very good late-romantic stuff.

Right now re-re-listening to Matthijs Vermeulen's fascinating second cello and piano sonata, played by Anner Bylsma and Reinbert de Leeuw. Followed by the Sting Quartet (played by the Schoenberg Quartet).

vandermolen

#353
I'm reviving this thread from a five year slumber to say how much I've been enjoying the music of Hendrik Andriessen, especially Symphony No.3, which is a fine, eloquent and, in places, turbulent symphony, very much of its times (1946) - there is a fine modern recording on CPO as well. Now, on to Leon Orthel  :)
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

André

Quote from: vandermolen on May 28, 2022, 11:44:33 PM
I'm reviving this thread from a five year slumber to say how much I've been enjoying the music of Hendrik Andriessen, especially Symphony No.3, which is a fine, eloquent and, in places, turbulent symphony, very much of its times (1946). there is a fine modern recording on CPO as well. Now, on to Leon Orthel :)

Another very fine Dutch composer !  :)

vandermolen

Quote from: André on May 29, 2022, 11:42:40 AM
Another very fine Dutch composer !  :)
Excellent! Good to know André  :)
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Christo

#356
Quote from: vandermolen on May 29, 2022, 11:48:47 AM
Excellent! Good to know André  :)

Go for his Second Symphony, his masterpiece, the 'Piccola Sinfonia', better than his Third, which is a 'war symphony', written during WWII and full of references to it.  :)

As I see now, the other Johan already said so:

Quote from: J.Z. Herrenberg on January 29, 2015, 04:37:44 AM
Orthel's Second Symphony (great work!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d2evVqZps4
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

André

I have the following works by Orthel, all worth attentive listening:

Evocation fo orchestra (Amsterdam Phil., Anton Kersjes)
Scherzo no 2 for orchestra (Marc Soustrot, Het Brabants Orkest)
Symph. no 2, Residentieorkest den Hague, Willem van Otterloo
Symph. no. 3, Residentieorkest den Hague, van Otterloo
Symph. no. 4, 'Sinfonia concertante' for piano and orchestra (composer at the piano, Netherlands Radio Phil., Jean Fournet).

vandermolen

#358
Quote from: Christo on May 29, 2022, 11:58:50 AM
Go for his Second Symphony, his masterpiece, the 'Piccola Sinfonia', better than his Third, which is a 'war symphony', written during WWII and full of references to it.  :)

As I see now, the other Johan already said so:
Thanks Johan!
I'm now listening to 'Evocazione' - which is terrific!
Unfortunately the ET'CETERA double CD set doesn't feature Symphony No.2 (only 3 and 4) but I will be looking out for it.
Oddly enough I'm sure that 'Evociazone' was once used as background music for a drama documentary about the life of the painter Jacques Louis David.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

J.Z. Herrenberg

The 'other Johan' returns... The Third Symphony is my favourite Andriessen symphony. A marvellous piece. I prefer a historic performance, under Jean Fournet. You can find it here: https://youtu.be/d4jmwDh9eVo


As for Orthel, I still love that Second Symphony, a minor masterpiece, in my opinion. Scherzo No. 2 is just as good.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato