After an orchestral career of over 44 years, Ben Legebeke, perhaps our best-known second violinist, is about to say goodbye. On Sunday October 19, he will play for the last time with the Residentie Orkest in Amare with - very appropriately - Fauré's Requiem .

When those magisterial notes have died out, it is the Last for Ben to leave the stage of our Concert Hall and pack his violin case. But a black hole certainly does not loom for him. "I do want to take a rest first but after that I plan to pick up all kinds of things. The Residentie Orkest also still sees me regularly because I have become a Friend and I would like to stay involved in the orchestra's archives. And of course I will continue to teach!"

Percussion

In the family where Ben grew up in the 1960s, classical music was always played on Sunday . His mother had been a clarinetist in Basel and his father was a good amateur guitarist and bass player. For Ben, they initially had percussion in mind because they thought he was just a wild boy. But one of his first concerts, the Brabant Orchestra with violinist Zino Vinnikov in the Rotterdam Doelen, made such an impression on little Ben that he went for the violin after all. From the moment he received a violin from Sinterklaas , things moved quickly. "My father knew Louis Sons well, concertmaster with the Residentie Orkest until 1977, and with him I then played for him. Unfortunately, Sons didn't have time at first but he came to listen regularly to my teacher Elizabeth de Monchy. Later I did take lessons from Sons. To conclude that time, I soloized in Bruch's Violin Concerto with the Rotterdam Conservatory Orchestra conducted by Roelof van Driesten and then I packed my bags. When I was seventeen I found myself on the doorstep in Amsterdam with Herman Krebbers, also former concertmaster of the Residentie Orkest. I had lessons with him for about six years, a really great time. After that I studied with Boris Belkin in Siena and Liege and took a master class with Christian Ferras."

Men in suits

After a little wandering in Brabant and even Italy, Ben ended up at the Residentie Orkest where, stupidly, he met his very first idol in the concertmaster's chair: Zino Vinnikov. "It really was a very different orchestra than it is now, though. I remember a very hierarchical organisation with mostly men in suits that related a lot to how it used to be under Van Otterloo's era. Sometimes it seemed as if the orchestra didn't want to go on so much, but the concerts were given and received with great enthusiasm. Technically they play much better now and the level of the young colleagues has risen enormously over the years. We really have a very fine group."

Halls

In all the years Ben has been in the second violin chair, he has also experienced multiple venues. "We have a really nice hall now but the first place I had to play, the Nederlands Congresgebouw, was difficult. It was like performing under a wool blanket. Then followed a special period with the construction of the Dr. Anton Philipszaal and all the concerts we gave there. From grand Mahlers and Bruckners to fantastic youth concerts and special concerts to keep people out of traffic jams. I also think back with pleasure to the many recordings we made there, such as the Beethoven cycle with Jaap van Zweden. A difficult time followed with the budget cuts, how politics looked at our orchestra and the move to the Zuiderstrandtheater. The atmosphere there was good but I myself was less happy about it. But with Amare , the Residentie Orkest got a really fantastic hall."

Looking Back

Retirement, of course, requires a look back, and Ben, with his vast factual knowledge and a memory like an elephant, obviously does that like the best of them. One of his oldest memories is the 1982 tour of the United States. "As musical ambassador for the Netherlands, we then played in the most important American cities: Chicago, Boston, New York. At Carnegie Hall we played Stravinsky's complete Firebird, among other things. Chief conductor Hans Vonk was at his best at these times, the orchestra played as if the "sparks" were flying. I also think of the concerts in the ancient open-air Herodes Atticus Theatre in Athens and Mahler's Second Symphony with Vonk in Vienna's Musikverein. And especially that the following day the newspaper wrote that the Residentie Orkest was the Netherlands' best orchestra," Ben says, laughing. "But for me the orchestra really began to live when Svetlanov became chief conductor. He knew how to bind the orchestra together, it was just magical how he managed to do that. Orchestral suites by Bach with large orchestra and then still managing to find the transparency, those were very special concerts."

Fantastic conductors

"And there were numerous fantastic conductors like Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Horst Stein, Antal Doráti, Neeme Järvi, Jan Willem de Vriend, Richard Egarr and some younger ones like Alan Gilbert, Michael Tilson Thomas and Santtu-Matias Rouvali. In the period before that, I would certainly like to mention Ferdinand Leitner, Heinz Wallberg, Alain Lombard and Franz Welser-Möst and, of course, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who died in 2016, with whom we played in Würzburg, for example: what an extraordinary maestro. I remember under him Beethoven's Fidelio with great names like Robert Holl, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Peter Schreier, Julia Varady and Barbara Hendricks and Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Gidon Kremer. What a joy to work with such a conductor and such soloists. But also now there are a lot of excellent conductors and I am happy that Jun Märkl is our new chief conductor. With him the orchestra can continue to build."

To conclude this little recap, Ben would like to recall an opera production that was special to him: "Saint François d'Assise by Messiaen, which we performed at De Nationale Opera in 2008. This opera is not often performed on stage because of its long duration, large cast and difficulty but the Residentie Orkest pulled it off. We also played it at the Royal Albert Hall in London."

Friend

It has already been said, after his retirement Ben will certainly not end up behind the geraniums. He will continue to teach talented students, and the Residentie Orkest will have a platinum Friend. "This way I maintain the connection with the orchestra and can support them in a way that is new to me. I have a warm feeling with the Residentie Orkest, I know it through and through and I would like to stay in touch with the people. That won't have to be daily anymore because I also want to sleep in sometimes."

The Doors

"And, of course, I continue to maintain my record collection. My father was already an avid collector and I took that over from him. It's wonderful to listen to classical music in peace at home. I have a broad taste: Haydn, Beethoven, Berlioz, Richard Strauss, Sibelius, Dutilleux, Messiaen and Lutoslawski. By the way, in the car I mostly play pop music, with The Doors at number 1 but don't discount The Beatles either. I've also always enjoyed playing crossover concerts with artists like Diana Ross, Julien Clerc, Michel Delpech, Tony Bennett, Bill Evans, Paul van Vliet and Bono to name a few. It doesn't always have to be Beethoven."

Finally, Ben definitely wants to say something about the Residentie Orkest. "I have played in almost every orchestra in the Netherlands, with great pleasure too, but every time I was back in The Hague with my 'own' orchestra it felt like a warm bath. Every orchestra has its own soul and the Residentie Orkest perhaps the most beautiful. I am incredibly grateful to have been able to play second violin all these years."

Jan Jaap Zwitser

There were many other concerts with extraordinary soloists that Ben certainly does not want to leave unmentioned. Violinists Henryk Szeryng, Ida Haendel, Kyung-Wha Chung, Josef Suk, Ruggiero Ricci and from the younger generation Maxim Vengerov, Gil Shaham, Shlomo Mintz, Vadim Repin and Nikolaj Znaider. Pianists Jorge Bolet, Alicia de Larrocha, Lang Lang, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Alexis Weissenberg, Evgeny Kissin and Vladimir Ashkenazy both as conductor and pianist.