GMG Classical Music Forum

The Music Room => Composer Discussion => Topic started by: Guido on January 15, 2008, 01:39:48 PM

Title: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Guido on January 15, 2008, 01:39:48 PM
As far as I can make out - a fascinating composer - has anyone heard his works? I only just found out about him from this website that Bodges linked to.

http://www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/

The blog entry from the 3rd of January gives more info, and a download of the third Symphony.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthijs_Vermeulen

These two collections seem to include everything he composed but both have been long out of print as far as I can see... Does anywhere else stock them?

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Matthijs-Vermeulen-Orchestral-Passacaille/dp/B0000049TX/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1200436272&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Matthijs-Vermeulen-Charles-van-Tassel/dp/B0000049TY
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: bhodges on January 15, 2008, 01:51:30 PM
I have a few of his pieces on disc, but haven't listened to them enough to really comment.  He has two works on this Concertgebouw Anthology (1950-1960)  (http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=61842&name_role1=4&bcorder=4&label_id=8458), his Symphony No. 2 ("Prélude à la nouvelle journée") and De vliegende Hollander: Passacaille et Cortège.

--Bruce
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on January 15, 2008, 01:53:50 PM
Hello, Guido!

Good topic! I am Dutch and I have all of Vermeulen's (seven) symphonies, the first 5 of which I know quite well. After having borrowed them from the library a few times, I bought them (quite recently) from an online shop here in The Netherlands. I don't have his chamber music yet, but that's something I hope to redress quite soon.

As you say - a fascinating composer. His First symphony, to me, is one of the Best Firsts ever, a glowing, glorious work by a visionary young man. But the Second surpasses it easily - it's driven, barbaric, eruptive. Vermeulen is a very un-Dutch composer: there is no reserve, no sobriety, the music is lava, and it hits you.

Vermeulen is also a great writer about music. His enthusiasm is infectious. It's a pity none of his articles and essays have been translated into English. The way he characterizes Beethoven, for instance, is so perceptive and affectionate, you immediately want to hear his music.

Yes, I really have much time for Vermeulen.

Johan

PS Just saw this: "He has two works on this Concertgebouw Anthology (1950-1960) , his Symphony No. 2 ("Prélude à la nouvelle journée") and De vliegende Hollander: Passacaille et Cortège."

The 'Vliegende Hollander' music is incidental music for a play by a leading Dutch poet. It's a very exciting and grand piece. Do listen to it, and see what you make of it, Bruce.
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: bhodges on January 15, 2008, 02:00:40 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on January 15, 2008, 01:53:50 PM
Vermeulen is a very un-Dutch composer: there is no reserve, no sobriety, the music is lava, and it hits you.

Well, this description certainly got my attention!  I'll see if I can listen to either or both of these in the next day or so and post some impressions. 

--Bruce
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Guido on January 15, 2008, 02:06:18 PM
Please do! As it says in the site I linked to - The second Symphony is occasionally referred to as the Dutch Rite of Spring!
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: pjme on January 16, 2008, 12:32:40 PM
Ever since I bought teh Donemus LP's ( and more recently the Cd's - from a shop in Utrecht), Vermeulen has made a deep impression on me. I've tried to sing his originality here several times before.

I've read a good part of Ton Braas' massive ( ca 850 pages) biography ( De bezige bij 1997 - Amsterdam), definitely a labour of love and significance.

I find symphonies 2-3-4 the most interesting : less than 30 mins in duration, densely scored for large orchestras ( with instruments of extreme tessitura - from very high trumpets to deep bassoons and dark horns).
Nr 2 "Prélude à la nouvelle journée" (Prelude to the new day - ca 1918-1920) is now massively confident and striving, then mysteriously lyrical and incantatory like a ritual. Braas claims that Vermeulen did not know the Sacre, but the "Prélude" has the same raw energy! He draws also paralels with Varèse and Ives ( symph. nr 47).

Nr 3 "Thrène et paean" ( Dirge and song of triumph) dates from 1922 . Koussevitsky is very enthusiastic and promises to perform the work with the Boston SO. Unfortunately, and inspite of Nadia Boulanger's help, Koussevitsky does not find the money for a performance ("...the American public isn't yet ready for such an advanced work...") and the symphony stays unperformed.
Symphony nr 3 has a slow introduction and is followed by three movements ( slow-fast-slow) without break. The work  is darker and more dramatic in tone than nr 2 . Vermeulen knows extremely well to build tension . Long arches of giant melodies raise and fall, interweave in complex forms. After a towering climax, the "Threnos" returns and the music disappears silently.

Nr 4 " Les victoires" (The victories - 1940-1942) is closely connected with the war years. Vermeulen lived in great poverty - yet in spite of many hardships, he managed to write a great,almost optimistic work . In a letter to his son Josquin, he writes" It starts( sounds as) with a huge group of bagpipes ,who suddenly begin to sing with a thousand voices from days bygone and eternal.That forms some kind of introduction, lasting about 2 minutes.Then the action begins. And it moves upwarts...I work in a joyous and happy mood - strangely enough".
This symphony is slightly more "popular" in tone ( has more tonal relations) and the quality of the many melodies is catchy and optimistic. Three uninterupted movements build inexorably to a beautiful climax .
Some years ago I witnessed a performance of "Les victoires" by Valery Gergiev in Rotterdam . The Rotterdam PO has something of a tradition now in performing Vermeulens difficult music - Gergiev has the measure of the refined colours and symphonic grandeur....

Symphony nr 5 " Les lendemains chantants (..difficult to translate  - possibly something like "the singing daybreaks") 3 movements of roughly 15 mins) is for me the most complex and difficult symphony.

Symphony nr 6 ( Les minutes heureuses) and nr 7 ( Dithyrambes pour les temps à venir) are definitely works of great mastery, but may lack the sheer ecxitement and shock of the earlier works.

"The Flying Dutchman "is a wonderful score - less complex than the symphonies ,but it sings majestically !

I'm very fond of the orchestral song " La veille" - a kind of obsessive , repetitive prayer . The performance by a very young Jard Van Nes is very convincing and moving.

Peter
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on January 16, 2008, 01:09:49 PM
I can't improve on your excellent posting, Peter. (So, you are Dutch, too?) I agree almost totally with your assessment of the symphonies.

I heard the Fifth live in the Concertgebouw during the Holland Festival in 1997 (IIRC), and it made a deep impression: it felt as one big arc, very satisfying.

The Third always seems a more refined and cooled-down Second to me. The opening struck me even in my teens (in the 1970s) - a music reviewer friend of a friend of mine had a box with LPs of Dutch music, and it contained Vermeulen's Third. The opening is very very arresting.

The Fourth I've only listened to once, so I reserve judgement until I know it better.

And the 'Vliegende Hollander' Passacaille is one of the best things he ever did (more impressive under Van Beinum than in the later recording with Otto Ketting IMO).

O, I almost forgot the First - one of my all-time favourite symphonies. The greatest symphonic miracle in Dutch music (after Vermeulen's Second...) When I heard it for the first time I thought 'This is sheer genius breaking through'. The march is one of the real 'Dutch' pieces of music I know, in spite of its Mahlerian influence. It's as Dutch as Smetana is Czech - I see Dutch paintings before my mind's eye when I hear it. Don't ask me why. And the Coda of the First is as poetic as any 'dying fall' by Delius.

Johan
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: pjme on January 16, 2008, 01:34:05 PM
Hi Johan, no I'm Belgian ( with friends & family in the Netherlands).

I discovered Vermeulen through LP's ,rented from the library.

Peter
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Dundonnell on January 16, 2008, 01:36:18 PM
Thanks for re-awakening my interest in Vermeulen!

I bought the Donemus boxed set of the 7 symphonies coupled with the extracts from "The Flying Dutchman" and "La veille" some time ago and made the mistake of listening to the CDs one after the other. That caused-if I recall-a certain degree of sensory overload! Rather like listening to too much Scriabin or Villa-Lobos. I think that I should re-investigate but selectively this time.

Vermeulen is certainly a most interesting composer although, on the evidence so far from the new CPO series, I do find Henk Badings more structured in his approach to symphonic composition.
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Guido on February 14, 2008, 03:47:44 PM
http://www.vpro.nl/programma/vrijegeluiden/afleveringen/37959168/media/39232775/

His fantastic first cello sonata her. Does anyone know how to download the file?
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: paulb on February 14, 2008, 04:15:09 PM
you guys are funny
"great", 'superb", 'awesome".
I heard no such thing in the music.
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Christo on February 16, 2008, 11:15:46 AM
Quote from: paulb on February 14, 2008, 04:15:09 PM
you guys are funny
"great", 'superb", 'awesome".
I heard no such thing in the music.

... but I do! And I do agree wholeheartedly with all of Peter's and also Johan's opinions, posted here before.

As far as I can see, nodoby mentions the (nowadays deleted and very hard to find) Chandos CD with Rozhdestvensky conducting the Residentie Orkest (The Hague) in Vermeulen II, VI and VIII. When I finally obtained my copy of it, last year, it showed a disappointment, however much I admire the conductor as a person.

He doesn't come to gripps with the magnificent (yes, Paulb!) Second. My own preferred version (there are at least four recordings available) being the one by Lucas Vis conducting the same orchestra on a special Donemus CD (Composers Voice KN1) with an analysis by Ton Braas that opened my ears and eyes to Vermeulen, back in the 1990s.
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 16, 2008, 12:08:47 PM
Quote from: Christo on February 16, 2008, 11:15:46 AM
... but I do! And I do agree wholeheartedly with all of Peter's and also Johan's opinions, posted here before.

As far as I can see, nodoby mentions the (nowadays deleted and very hard to find) Chandos CD with Rozhdestvensky conducting the Residentie Orkest (The Hague) in Vermeulen II, VI and VIII. When I finally obtained my copy of it, last year, it showed a disappointment, however much I admire the conductor as a person.

He doesn't come to gripps with the magnificent (yes, Paulb!) Second. My own preferred version (there are at least four recordings available) being the one by Lucas Vis conducting the same orchestra on a special Donemus CD (Composers Voice KN1) with an analysis by Ton Braas that opened my ears and eyes to Vermeulen, back in the 1990s.

Good to see you again, Christo!
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: pjme on February 17, 2008, 01:31:50 PM
Quote from: paulb on February 14, 2008, 04:15:09 PM
you guys are funny
"great", 'superb", 'awesome".
I heard no such thing in the music.

We're not funny, we're serious. Just like Vermeulen himself... ;D

(http://www.classical-composers.org/img/vermeulen.jpg)(http://www.muzsika.net/kepnezo.php3?kep_id=4331)
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: offbeat on January 02, 2010, 02:46:23 AM
Just discovered Vermeulen 1st Symphony on my downloads - love it very ecstatic- reminds me a lot of Richard Strauss- completely different from his 2nd which i already think is great but for different reasons - must try and hear some more  :)
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Cato on January 05, 2010, 06:10:52 PM
Vermeulen's Second Symphony has an impact like the non-collage works of Charles Ives, e.g. the Robert Browning Overture.

Years ago, I was lucky enough to order this work from Donemus when they provided the score with their recordings!   :o

I assume they no longer do this?   
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Dax on January 06, 2010, 02:27:06 AM
http://highponytail.blogspot.com/2009/12/matthijs-vermeulen-chamber-music.html

for those wanting to hear Vermeulen's chamber music
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on January 06, 2010, 07:11:02 AM
http://www.mediafire.com/file/fm4pw0m2lqo/03 - Vermeulen Symphony No.2 'Prelude a la nouvelle journee'' Eduard van Beinum Jul5 1956.flac


(Concertgebouw Orchestra. Live recording, Van Beinum conducting. 5 July 1956)


http://www.mediafire.com/file/6czxjge3gnq/Symfonie Nr 2, 'Prélude a la nouvelle journée'.mp3


(Rotterdam Philharmonic. Live recording, Otto Ketting conducting. 10 February 1978)
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: offbeat on January 06, 2010, 01:18:42 PM
many tks to Dax and Jezetha - fantastic
virtually nothing an amazon for  Vermeulen  :)
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Sean on January 09, 2010, 06:32:24 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on January 06, 2010, 07:11:02 AM
http://www.mediafire.com/file/fm4pw0m2lqo/03 - Vermeulen Symphony No.2 'Prelude a la nouvelle journee'' Eduard van Beinum Jul5 1956.flac


(Concertgebouw Orchestra. Live recording, Van Beinum conducting. 5 July 1956)


http://www.mediafire.com/file/6czxjge3gnq/Symfonie Nr 2, 'Prélude a la nouvelle journée'.mp3


(Rotterdam Philharmonic. Live recording, Otto Ketting conducting. 10 February 1978)

Thanks. I'm downloading the Ketting now.
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Lilas Pastia on January 09, 2010, 01:22:55 PM
Thanks, Dax ! That will be my first exposure to his chamber music. I  have symponies 1 (2), 2 (3) and 6, 7 (1 each). But alas, no 3, 4 or 5. I suppose they must be hard to come by. Amazon says the complete set is discontinued. OTOH it's unlikely I'd buy it considering I already have 4 of them, some in multiple interpretations.
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Sean on January 10, 2010, 09:04:32 AM
The Second symphony is an impressive piece, very cogent and satisfying on first hearing.
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: donaldopato on January 16, 2010, 09:06:56 AM
My intro and sorry to say my only CD of Vermeulen was the Residentie Orchestra recording of Symphonies 2, 6 and 7 with Rozhdestvensky on Chandos now deleted. I was immediately fascinated but the difficulty in finding recordings here in the hinterlands kept me from going further.

I should rectify that. Great music and I do agree Symphony # 2 is an impressive work.
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Lilas Pastia on January 16, 2010, 03:25:05 PM
I listened to that disc this week, in preparation for more Vermeulen listening. I found symphony 6 hard to grab. I liked # 7. But so far I find 1 ans 2 to be the works that work best for me.
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Lilas Pastia on January 30, 2010, 06:05:42 PM
Symphonies 3 (1921) and 4 (1941).

I had a rough time with # 4 "Les Victoires". It starts rather stridently. It's an insistent  stridulation of the winds over pounding ostinati in the strings. There are many sections, but the feeling I had was of the initial  material constantly morphing, as if viewed from different angles or lighting. It's all rather grating and not exactly beautiful, but the perspiration gives way to a beautiful middle section, where for the first time I had the impression the music was breathing. More transformations follow, and the music resumes its angular, sinuous, jerky forward motion. So, basically it's an ABA structure, but you have to be very attentive to circumscribe its numerous sub sections. All told, a difficult but very interesting work. It took me three hearings to start making something of the structure and the language, but my patience was repaid.

Symphony 3 is titled "Thrène et péan" It translates roughly as Song of Death and Song of Joy. It is shorter and the music slightly more amenable. It starts with a typical modern gesture, a three note motif over very wide intervals. The péan is heard first, a rather joyless section as far as I'm concerned. It's quite busy and I'm sometimes reminded of works like Rite of Spring or Sensemaya or Ishavet. "Primitive", "ritualistic" are words that come to mind.

Interestingly, I followed that by André Jolivet's 1st symphony (1954)  and right from the start I had an impression of déjà vu. There is a kinship between this work and those of Vermeulen, in the sense that they are uncompromisingly modern in sound and show a great mastery of rythm. Jolivet's is a more classically structured work though, in 4 clearly contrasted movements.

Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on January 31, 2010, 05:33:37 AM
Your perseverance is admirable, André, because I agree Vermeulen can be hard going. I have the sense that his tragic isolation made him too unaware of listeners and their perception/perceptiveness. He sometimes doesn't seem to know when he has made his point. If he had had a critical audience, he would have learned when 'to move on'. Sad. Still, his Symphonies 1 & 2 and the Flying Dutchman music I wouldn't miss for the world!
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Lilas Pastia on January 31, 2010, 07:19:12 AM
It's too early for me to figure out if Vermeulen is a good symphonist. I haven't listened to # 5 (will in a few days). Symphonies 3, 4, 6 and 7 are works of stature, but their contents are heavily protected from outside curiosity, and I can only glimpse at them here and there. I suppose even more hearing is in order. Brian also has that effect on me. Curiosity, circumspection, bafflement sometimes, but a  feeling there's something of value under that thick rhino skin.
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on January 31, 2010, 09:29:23 AM
Brian and Vermeulen - I know what you mean. Both are sometimes not particularly easy on the ear and their formal processes are idiosyncratic. Still, I do think Brian is the 'easier' of the two. Even his late music can be whistled and sung, if you know it well enough...
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Maciek on February 12, 2010, 12:28:00 PM
Quote from: Dax on January 06, 2010, 02:27:06 AM
http://highponytail.blogspot.com/2009/12/matthijs-vermeulen-chamber-music.html

for those wanting to hear Vermeulen's chamber music

And the latest post in same blog has vocal Vermeulen:
http://highponytail.blogspot.com/2010/02/matthijs-vermeulen-part-2-vocal-music.html (http://highponytail.blogspot.com/2010/02/matthijs-vermeulen-part-2-vocal-music.html)
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: SymphonicAddict on October 30, 2017, 03:53:45 PM
Vermeulen has been a positive discovery for me recently. I think his 7 symphonies represent an important set of examples in the musical form from The Netherlands. I like the Nos. 1, 2 and 4 the most, being the No. 1 the most tonal with a heroic strength, the No. 2 radically different, very 'exotic' (it reminded me of music of Latin America's composers), and the No. 4 with a march-like mood. Despite the works are practically atonal (except the No. 1), it wasn't really an important issue. In addition, the contrapuntal thing makes them more intense and developed.
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: André on October 30, 2017, 05:28:13 PM
Boy, rereading previous posts from 7 years ago makes me realize I haven't listened to any of the symphonies since 2010. Time to remedy to that! I'm curious to see if my old impressions still hold  ;).

OTOH the chamber music has not been neglected in my schedule: I noted hearings of the 2 cello sonatas, the violin sonata, string trio and string quartet in the last 12 months.
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: André on October 31, 2017, 03:47:12 PM
Reposted from the What Are You Listening thread:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/MatthijsVermeulen1920.jpg)

Mathijs Vermeulen's music strikingly announces the modernism of Varèse. To my ears, there's a good deal of Ives, too. Of course Vermeulen could not have known either composer's music: that of Ives was still unplayed at the time and Varèse had not written anything yet when symphony no 2 « Prélude à la nouvelle journée » was composed. Finished in 1920 but premiered only in 1956, it is a disconcerting assemblage of conflicting rythms and textures. The effect is both confusing and exhilarating. The Concertgebouworkest is under Eduard van Beinum. Live, 1956.

Symphony no 4 « Les victoires » was written in 1942, at the nadir of european civilization in the 20th century (any victory was then a mere figment of the imagination). It features a prominent ostinato in low winds and percussion that doggedly pounds away while the winds and later, the strings execute seemingly absurd figures and arabesques. The ostinato comes and goes. A true « war symphony », it's a powerful work that is mesmerizing and disturbing at the same time. In this live performance, The Hague Philharmonic is conducted by XXth century music specialist Ernest Bour (03.10.1981)

Ferdinand Leitner conducts The Hague Philharmonic in symphony no 3 « Thrène et Péan » (11.02.1977). Written in 1921-22, this too is a tough nut to crack, although its mood is not as anguished as no 2 or as numbing and somber as no 4. It could be described as a « symphony of shadows », especially in the first part (thrène being a kind of funeral procession). The paean part produces some forceful rejoicing, but it is certainly not cheerful stuff. I was reminded of symphonies 2 and 3 and the opera Lady Macbeth by Shostakovich (yet to come of course).

Vermeulen's music went unplayed or badly played for most of his life. Then, when van Beinum took over Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra, it started to be played quite regularly (Mengelberg curtly dismissed the composer's first symphony in 1918 and never looked back). It has to be said that, by the late fifties/sixties, the composer's modernisms weren't too shocking for ensembles and audiences that had started to be exposed to late Stravinsky, Varèse, Ives, Prokofiev (symphonies 2 and 3), Shostakovich and Honegger. Vermeulen could without boasting claim « I was there first ».
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: Cato on October 31, 2017, 04:07:58 PM
Quote from: André on October 31, 2017, 03:47:12 PM
Reposted from the What Are You Listening thread:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/MatthijsVermeulen1920.jpg)

Mathijs Vermeulen's music strikingly announces the modernism of Varèse. To my ears, there's a good deal of Ives, too. Of course Vermeulen could not have known either composer's music: that of Ives was still unplayed at the time and Varèse had not written anything yet when symphony no 2 « Prélude à la nouvelle journée » was composed. Finished in 1920 but premiered only in 1956, it is a disconcerting assemblage of conflicting rythms and textures. The effect is both confusing and exhilarating. The Concertgebouworkest is under Eduard van Beinum. Live, 1956.

Symphony no 4 « Les victoires » was written in 1942, at the nadir of european civilization in the 20th century (any victory was then a mere figment of the imagination). It features a prominent ostinato in low winds and percussion that doggedly pounds away while the winds and later, the strings execute seemingly absurd figures and arabesques. The ostinato comes and goes. A true « war symphony », it's a powerful work that is mesmerizing and disturbing at the same time. In this live performance, The Hague Philharmonic is conducted by XXth century music specialist Ernest Bour (03.10.1981)

Ferdinand Leitner conducts The Hague Philharmonic in symphony no 3 « Thrène et Péan » (11.02.1977). Written in 1921-22, this too is a tough nut to crack, although its mood is not as anguished as no 2 or as numbing and somber as no 3. It could be described as a « symphony of shadows », especially in the first part (thrène being a kind of funeral procession). The paean part produces some forceful rejoicing, but it is certainly not cheerful stuff. I was reminded of symphonies 2 and 3 and the opera Lady Macbeth by Shostakovich (yet to come of course).

Vermeulen's music went unplayed or badly played for most of his life. Then, when van Beinum took over Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra, it started to be played quite regularly (Mengelberg curtly dismissed the composer's first symphony in 1918 and never looked back). It has to be said that, by the late fifties/sixties, the composer's modernisms weren't too shocking for ensembles and audiences that had started to be exposed to late Stravinsky, Varèse, Ives, Prokofiev (symphonies 2 and 3), Shostakovich and Honegger. Vermeulen could without boasting claim « I was there first ».

Vermeulen RAWKS!  8)  It's that easy!!!  Many years ago, thanks to the Donemus foundation, I received his Symphony #2 and the score for it!  What a ride!  Back then (c. 45 years ago) I compared this symphony to the Robert Browning Overture of Charles Ives, so yes, your comments above are on target, as far as my ears are concerned! 

Many thanks for the information! 
Title: Re: Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967)
Post by: André on October 31, 2017, 06:25:42 PM
Thanks, Leo ! I didn't see any mention of Ives in relation to Vermeulen's music, but his name sprang to my mind immediately when listening to symphonies 2 and 3. As per wikipedia, Varèse and Jolivet are mentioned in various articles, but again, Vermeulen preceded both !

I'll listen to symphonies 5-7 later this week. Too bad there is only 1 commercial disc (on Chandos). This is one instance in which Naxos' advocacy would be well placed !