Residentie Orkest The Hague 

Jan Willem de Vriend, conductor
Ronald Brautigam, piano
 

Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847) 

Piano Concerto No. 2, op. 12 in C (1807) 

• Allegro 

• Poco adagio 

• Rondo: Allegro 

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) 

Symphony no. 8 in F, op. 93 (1812) 

• Allegro vivace e con brio 

• Allegretto scherzando 

• Tempo di menuetto 

• Allegro vivace 

End of concert approximately 12:00 p.m.

Jan Willem de Vriend - conductor 

Current position First guest conductor Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona I Nacional de Catalunya, permanent guest conductor Orchestre National de Lille, first guest conductor Stuttgarter Philharmoniker and artist in residence of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. From 2015-2019 permanent conductor of the Residentie Orkest. 

Studied Violin at the conservatories of The Hague and Amsterdam. 

Radio 4 Prize Award (2012). 

Highlights Founder and artistic director (1982-2014) of the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam; chief conductor and artistic director of the Orchestra of the East (2006-2017). Stood for Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, NDR-Orchester and Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, among others. Recorded Schubert's symphonies with the Residentie Orkest . The Last CD, vol. 4 with symphonies 5 and 6, was released on Oct. 7, 2022. 

In the press 'The Friend makes you listen as new' - NTR Podium 

Ronald Brautigam - piano 

Studied Sweelinck Conservatory Amsterdam with Jan Wijn and Rudolf Serkin. 

Highlights Is a of Holland's leading and most versatile musicians. Soloed with orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestre Nationale France with conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Christopher Hogwood and Ivan Fischer. As a fortepianist, he has been heard with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Freiburger Barockorchester and the l'Orchestre des Champs-Elysées. Recorded more than 60 CDs for label BIS. 

Dutch Music Prize awards (1984); Midem Classical Award (2010). Received numerous awards for his recordings including two Edisons and a Diapason de l'Annee. 

Residentie Orkest The Hague 

Founded The Hague, 1904 

Current chief conductor Anja Bihlmaier 

Permanent guest conductors Richard Egarr and Jun Märkl 

Chief conductors Henri Viotta, Peter van Anrooy, Frits Schuurman, Willem van Otterloo, Jean Martinon, Ferdinand Leitner, Hans Vonk, Evgenii Svetlanov, Jaap van Zweden, Neeme Järvi, Nicholas Collon. 

To be seen at Amare, Paard, The National Opera, Royal Concertgebouw, De Doelen, TivoliVredenburg among others . 

Education Annual outreach to over 40,000 schoolchildren, adults and amateur musicians in educational projects. Part of this is The Residents, through which the orchestra brings hundreds of children from districts in The Hague into contact with classical music. 

Wilms and Beethoven 

Although he was sometimes controversial in his innovative music, Beethoven was nevertheless by far the most famous composer in existence in the early nineteenth century. That Wilms in Amsterdam was occasionally compared to him was quite an honor. At most, Rossini could rival Beethoven in popularity, especially when he celebrated great triumphs in his home city of Vienna. Beethoven was not so concerned about that.


Although somewhat forgotten today, at the turn of the 1800s Johann Wilhelm Wilms was one of the leading composers in the Netherlands. Born in 1772 in Germany, he left for Amsterdam in 1791 to try his luck. He played flute and piano in the prestigious orchestras of Felix Meritis and Eruditio Musica. He also performed as a piano virtuoso and gave the Dutch premieres of piano concertos by Beethoven and Mozart in Amsterdam. His orchestral works were on the desks with great regularity, not only of the Dutch but also of foreign orchestras including the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. Yet, in the end, things did not work out in the Netherlands. He was annoyed by the mediocre quality of the musicians and the superficial musical climate in our country. In 1823 he withdrew from the public musical life of the capital and spent his days as organist of the Mennonite Church. 

As a concert pianist, Wilms composed seven piano concertos for his own use. While his First Piano Concerto was still entirely in the style of Mozart, in the Second Piano Concerto the élan of Beethoven comes out more, especially when it comes to the orchestra. The latter, in addition to a supporting role for the orchestra, also has a clearly colorful symphonic role of its own. Although the concerto requires a technically proficient soloist, truly virtuosic playing is rare. Nor was it something Wilms had in mind at all. In his own words, he preferred to touch the listener emotionally rather than bewilder them with an excess of acrobatic notes. 

Symphony with humor 

And Beethoven himself? He may have been Europe's most famous composer, but that did not take away from the fact that he was completely unpredictable, and not only in his temper. He also managed to constantly surprise friend and foe alike musically. In December 1813 he caused a huge furor with a concert in which he presented not only his Seventh Symphony , but also Wellinton's Sieg, an enormous spectacle piece in which he noisily recounted one of the painful defeats of Napoleon's army. In the weeks that followed, he put the two pieces on the program several more times. But at a concert in February 1814, he combined both successful numbers with his Eighth Symphony , which he had composed in just a few months. The audience did not know what to make of it and let the rather short work pass by rather untouched, already looking forward to the bombast of Wellington's Sieg. In this symphony, it seems as if Beethoven is briefly returning to the days of Mozart and Haydn, but that is only half the truth. For against this modest backdrop, a work full of surprises and humor develops. For example, the first movement falls unusually loudly on the doorstep. Originally, this symphony also had a few solid closing measures that Beethoven later replaced into something that slowly dies away. Today we hear the original ending of the first movement of the 1814 premiere. The second movement is not a carried adagio, but a droll melody akin to a clock running too fast. The third movement, unusually for Beethoven, is not a scherzo but a true minuet, whose contrasting middle section is reminiscent of a Ländler. And the symphony ends with no less than fifteen pops from the entire orchestra on the same chord. 

Kees Wisse