A concert from Amsterdam by way of Madrid this week – the Netherlands Philharmonic, led by Etienne Siebens and featuing pianist Ralph van Ratt in a decidedly Dutch program – all recorded live on September 3rd 2011 by AVRO in Hilversum and relayed to RNE Radio Clasica.
Opening with Symphony Number 3 by Lex van Delden – followed by No Reason To Panic by Mayke Nas and concluding the concert with Symphony Number 1 by Jan Pieter Hendrik van Gilse.
Lex Van Delden was committed to the musical community, borne out by his readiness to hold several administrative posts, including the presidency of the Society of Dutch Composers (GeNeCo) and the chairmanship of the Dutch Performing Right Organisation (Buma/Stemra). He sat on the Board of the International Society for Contemporary Music (I.S.C.M.) and was a member of the Dutch Committee of the International Music Council.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, van Delden became one of the most widely heard Dutch composers of his generation, and a large number of his pieces were commissioned (by the Dutch government, the City of Amsterdam, Dutch radio and others) and enjoyed acclaimed performances by the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra under such renowned conductors as George Szell, Charles Münch, Eduard van Beinum, Eugen Jochum, Willem van Otterloo, and Bernard Haitink, and by numerous other prominent ensembles and soloists.
He was made a Knight of the Royal Order of Oranje-Nassau (1972), and received the Freedom of the City of Amsterdam (1982), where he died on 1 July 1988. He is buried at Zorgvlied cemetery. A new bridge in the Amsterdam Zuidas quarter (designed by architect Liesbeth van der Pol) was named after him; the bridge was officially opened on 15 October 2013.
Mayke Nas has composed on commission from, among others, the Nieuw Ensemble , the Schönberg Ensemble , Slagwerkgroep Den Haag , Orkest de Volharding , the Ives Ensemble , Aleph ( France ), the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra , the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Student Chamber Orchestra . Nas was ‘composer-in-residence’ at the Nieuw Ensemble from 2004 to 2006. Theatre, video, text & choreography are often part of her compositions. For example, in collaboration with Wouter Snoei in 2005 she adapted the play Self-Accusation by Peter Handke for Slagwerkgroep Den Haag into the piece I Delayed People’s Flights by Walking Slowly in Narrow Hallways , for four players, four chairs, four amplified blackboards and live electronics. In 2006 she wrote Anyone can do it for six completely unprepared players who do not necessarily have to be musically skilled, inspired by Fluxus.
Coming from a family of theologians, Jan van Gilse showed an early aptitude for piano playing and composing. From 1897 onwards, he studied at the Cologne conservatory. After his teacher, Franz Wüllner, died in 1902, he continued his studies with Engelbert Humperdinck in Berlin. From 1909 to 1911, he studied in Italy. In 1901, van Gilse received the Beethoven-Haus Prize in Bonn for his (First) Symphony in F major; In 1906, the Michael Beer Prize was awarded to him for his Third Symphony, ‘Erhebung’ (‘Elevation’; for soprano solo and orchestra).
In addition to composing, van Gilse soon developed an interest in conducting. He started out with the Bremen Opera, a post which was followed by appointments in Munich and Amsterdam. After the outbreak of the First World War made travel difficult, he moved back to the Netherlands. From 1917 until 1922 he was the conductor of the Utrecht Municipal Orchestra (Utrechtsch Stedelijk Orkest).
In 1921, van Gilse resigned the post after a conflict with the orchestra’s board of directors. Van Gilse had been attacked for some time by the composer and music critic Willem Pijper in the daily Utrechts Dagblad, attacks that grew in viciousness as time progressed. Van Gilse’s request that Pijper be denied access to concerts was stalled for so long that he lost faith and resigned. The board subsequently refused him a farewell concert.
Eight years later van Gilse put the experiences from his tenure in Utrecht on paper. The autobiography that materialised was sizeable and contained almost 350,000 words. However, because he didn’t spare anyone or anything (including himself), van Gilse doubted whether the manuscript would ever see the light of day. It was eventually edited and published in 2003.[1]
During World War II, van Gilse became actively involved with the resistance movement against the German occupation of the Netherlands. Both his sons, who were also resistance fighters, were killed by the occupiers before van Gilse himself succumbed (probably to pneumonia) in the autumn of 1944. To protect his shelter, he was buried in an unmarked grave outside the village of Oegstgeest.
Ralph Van Raat regularly appears as a recitalist around the world, in Europe, the Middle East, Australia and Asia as well as in the United States. Contemporary classical music is his repertoire of choice and dedication. His concerts are regularly broadcast by radio and television networks. He has been engaged for his own radio series on contemporary classical music by Dutch national broadcasting and has been honored with his own concert series by a.o. the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam and De Doelen in Rotterdam.
Eienne Siebens’ rise as conductor to international musical prominence has been an astonishing phenomenon. Early on in his career, he was invited to give guest performances with several orchestras in Belgium and The Netherlands. Invitations from England, Germany, Italy, France and Spain were soon to follow. The press wrote about him that he was: “… the coming-man in the conducting-poor Belgium…”.
He studied conducting under Lucas Vis, Hiroyuki Iwaki and Jorma Panula.His repertoire ranges from music of the seventeenth century to contemporary work and encompasses all genres: symphonic, operatic and chamber. National and international reviews are unanimously favorable.
Siebens worked with soloists such as Hannigan, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, José van Dam, Christianne Stotijn, Quirine Viersen, Frank Braley, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Claron McFadden and Pieter Wispelwey. He also worked very closely with composers as: Maurico Kagel, György Kurtag, Peter Eötvös, Luca Francesconi, Michel Van der Aa, Louis Andriessen, Harisson Birtwistle, P.M.Davies, Philippe Boesmans.
There you have it – now enjoy the concert.
