Romance in the Nieuwe Kerk

What are you going to listen to?

Dvořák

Dvořák wrote his eighteen love songs Cypresses, after poems by Moravský, originally for voice and piano. He was only 22 and the song cycle stemmed from his infatuation with actress Josefina Čermáková to whose sister Anna he would later marry. Dvořák was very attached to this early song cycle, and he reused several melodies in his operas. He also arranged 12 songs for string quartet, four of which will be heard tonight. The songs are clearly identifiable in terms of melody, harmony and rhythm in the arrangements. Because Dvořák had composed many songs by moonlight, they were sometimes called "evening songs. Unfortunately for Dvorák, only a few of the movements were performed during his lifetime, simply because publisher Simrock saw no bread in publication. It was not until 1957 that the original was published.

Schubert

Schubert was the first grandmaster of romantic song, writing more than six hundred of them in his short life! He was a great inspiration to song composers after him such as Schumann, Brahms and Hugo Wolf. In 1995, the German composer Aribert Reimann arranged four of Schubert's Mignon songs, on texts by Goethe, for soprano and string quartet. Mignon is a character in Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and she died of heartbreak. Reimann provided the songs with transitions, a short instrumental introduction and an epilogue, making the cycle one whole. Reimann magisterially translated the piano accompaniments into Schubert's own late string quartet idiom.

Reger

Although composer Max Reger has not been completely forgotten, he stood in the shadow of other composers for a long time. He wrote music in almost every genre and was in the tradition of abstract music (music without extra-musical meanings) of Johannes Brahms. Reger held prominent positions in German musical life and was a teacher and later director of the Leipzig conservatory. He later became a conductor in Meiningen and moved to Jena in 1915, where he died of a heart attack the following year. Reger's organ music is still regularly performed, but his orchestral and chamber music is fairly rare to hear. Possibly it is because of his somewhat strict academic disposition and penchant for fugues. His Serenade, however, shows a very different Reger. It is a light, playful and joyful work from 1915 with neoclassical influences. One hears Mozart rather than Brahms or Bach as an influence.

X-ray

Who says Röntgen, says X-rays. And indeed, the discoverer of this radiation, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was the second cousin of the composer Julius Röntgen. However, the German-Dutch composer is a lot more unknown, although Röntgen's name adorns the balcony surround in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. Since 2005, the one hundred and fiftieth year of Röntgen's birth, a reappraisal has been underway and many of his compositions have been recorded on CD and a biography has been published. Julius Röntgen was born in Leipzig in 1855 where his father Engelbert was concertmaster of the renowned Gewandhaus Orchestra. He received his training as a composer here and had lessons from Reinecke and Lachner who had been pupils of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms. Röntgen's style was influenced by these Romantics, but he also used folk music from Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands. For example, he wrote a piano work "Clog Fugue," and his Symphony No. 13 has the subtitle "All Ducks Swim in the Water.

Julius was very prolific, leaving behind over six hundred works, including 24 symphonies, 6 piano concertos and 14 cello sonatas. His role in Dutch musical life was great as one of the founders of the Amsterdam Conservatory and as conductor of the Toonkunst Choir Amsterdam. When Brahms visited the Netherlands, Röntgen played the solo part in Brahms' Second Piano Concerto with Brahms conducting. A great honor, as Röntgen was a great Brahms fan. In addition, he was also good friends with Edvard and Nina Grieg, to whom he also dedicated works. Son Edvard Röntgen, named after the composer, was a cellist in the Residentie Orkest from 1924 to 1967.

Röntgen wrote his Second piano quintet at 72 and dedicated it to Johannes Dudok van Heel, a respected board member of Toonkunst and founder of donors to the Concertgebouw. The work begins darkly with a rhythmic viola motif that recurs throughout the movement. This is followed by a lyrical theme. The second movement is a fiery scherzo in the style of Brahms and Dvořák with a fugal middle section. This is followed by a short lamentation after which the final movement is immediate. In the passionate finale, the tension is heightened with alternations between major and minor and the beginning of the piece returns. The compact work lasts only sixteen minutes and it shows great craftsmanship by one of the greatest Dutch Romantic composers.

Ruben Heimans

Tonight's ensemble

Irene Piazza violin
SergiyStarzhynskiy violin
Jan Buizer viola
Tom van Lent cello
RienekeBrink flute
Klaartje van Veldhoven soprano
Tobias Borsboom piano