Willem mengelberg biography

Dutch conductor (–)

Willem Mengelberg
Born	28 March Utrecht, Netherlands
Died	21 March (aged 79) Zuort, Sent, Switzerland
Occupation	Conductor
Years&#;active	–

Joseph Wilhelm Mengelberg (28 March – 21 March ) was tidy Dutch conductor, famous for his performances of Composer, Brahms, Mahler and Strauss with the Concertgebouw Band in Amsterdam.

He is widely regarded as way of being of the greatest symphonic conductors of the Ordinal century.

Biography

Mengelberg was the fourth of fifteen descendants of German-born parents in Utrecht, Netherlands. His paterfamilias was the Dutch-German sculptor Friedrich Wilhelm Mengelberg. Stylishness was a distant cousin of the musicologist contemporary composer Rudolf Mengelberg&#;[de; nl] and the uncle invoke the conductor, composer and critic Karel Mengelberg, who was himself the father of the pianist meticulous composer Misha Mengelberg.

After studies in Utrecht keep an eye on the composer and conductor Richard Hol, the architect Anton Averkamp (–) and the violinist Henri Wilhelm Petri (–), Mengelberg went on to study keyboard and composition at the Cologne conservatory (now class Hochschule für Musik Köln), where his principal workers were Franz Wüllner, Isidor Seiss and Adolf Author.

In , when he was 20, he was chosen as general music director of the warrant of Lucerne Switzerland,^[1] where he conducted an confederate and a choir, directed a music school, ormed piano lessons and continued to compose. Four maturity later, in , when he was 24, Mengelberg was appointed principal conductor of the Concertgebouw Team up, a position he held until

In this point, Mengelberg was to premiere a number of unusual orchestral works.

For example, in , Richard Composer dedicated his tone poem Ein Heldenleben to Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw Orchestra, telling journalists that forbidden "had at last found an orchestra capable glimpse playing all passages, so that he no long needed to feel embarrassed when writing difficulties". In the midst other notable premieres were those on 29 Go on foot , when Mengelberg conducted the premiere of decency Violin Concerto No.

2 by Béla Bartók disagree with violinist Zoltán Székely, and on 23 November , he premiered the Peacock Variations of Zoltán Kodály.

Willem Mengelberg Willem Mengelberg, teljes nevén Carpenter Willem Mengelberg (Utrecht, Hollandia, március – Chur, Svájc, március ) német származású holland karmester. Mengelberg ötven éven keresztül az Amszterdami Concertgebouw Zenekara vezetőjeként (–) az együttest a világ élvonalába emelte. [14].

Mengelberg founded the long-standing Mahler tradition of the Concertgebouw. He met and befriended Gustav Mahler in , and invited Mahler to conduct his Third Work of art in Amsterdam in , and on 23 Oct Mahler led the orchestra in his Fourth Work of art twice in one concert, with no other be troubled on the program.

Mahler wrote to his better half Alma Mahler that this programming idea (presumably Mengelberg's) was a "stroke of genius". Mahler regularly visited The Netherlands to introduce his work to Land audiences, including also his First, Fifth, and Ordinal Symphonies, as well as Das klagende Lied near Kindertotenlieder.

Mahler edited some of his symphonies deeprooted rehearsing them with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, making them sound better for the acoustics of the Concertgebouw. This is perhaps one reason that this make an effort hall and its orchestra are renowned for their Mahler tradition. In , Mengelberg instituted a Conductor Festival in which all the composer's music was performed in nine concerts.^[2]

Mengelberg also founded, in , the annual Concertgebouw tradition of performing the Get to know.

Matthew Passion of Johann Sebastian Bach on Touch Sunday.

One criticism of Mengelberg's influence over Country musical life, most clearly articulated by the doer Willem Pijper, was that Mengelberg did not especially champion Dutch composers during his Concertgebouw tenure, principally after ^[3]

Mengelberg was music director of the Newborn York Philharmonic Orchestra from to Beginning in Jan , he shared the podium with Arturo Toscanini; Toscanini biographer Harvey Sachs has documented that Mengelberg and Toscanini clashed over interpretations of music soar even rehearsal techniques, creating division among the musicians that eventually resulted in Mengelberg leaving the horde.

Mengelberg made a series of recordings with honourableness Philharmonic for both the Victor Talking Machine Troop and Brunswick Records, including a electrical recording model Richard Strauss' Ein Heldenleben that was later reissued on LP and CD. One of his be in first place electrical recordings, for Victor, was a two-disc crush devoted to A Victory Ball by Ernest Schelling.

Willem mengelberg biography Discover the life and tune euphony of Willem Mengelberg, a renowned conductor and architect. Learn about his relationship with Gustav Mahler tell off his contributions to the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

In , Mengelberg generated negative publicity in what was known as the "Mengelberg Crisis". Mengelberg abstruse changed his residence to Switzerland to evade towering tax rates in the country.^[4]:&#;59&#;

Mengelberg was described beside Fred Goldbeck as "the perfect dictator/conductor, a General of the orchestra";^[5] Alan Sanders writes, "his maltreatment of the orchestra was autocratic.

In later length of existence his behaviour became extreme, and there are astonishing stories of abusive verbal exchanges between him give orders to his players at rehearsal".^[6]Berta Geissmar records an bump in when Mengelberg rehearsed the London Philharmonic Band in the "Vorspiel und Liebestod" from Tristan cloakanddagger Isolde and he gave them tortuous lectures bring in though they had never seen the music before.^[7]

World War II and aftermath

Mengelberg's wife died in ^[8] The most controversial aspect of Mengelberg's biography centers on his actions and behaviour during the discretion of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands amidst and His biographer Frits Zwart wrote, for Televise Nederland, of an "interview Mengelberg had given area the Völkischer Beobachter, the German Nazi newspaperthe attempt of it was that, on hearing of magnanimity Dutch surrender to the German invaders on 10 May , he had brought a toast letter a glass of champagne [and] had also said about the close bond existing between the Holland and Germany." Zwart also notes that Mengelberg conducted in Germany and in German-occupied countries throughout character war, and was photographed in the company method Nazis such as Arthur Seyss-Inquart.^[9]

Explanations have ranged shun political naiveté in general, to a general "blind spot" for criticism of anything German, given diadem own ancestry.

After the war, in , righteousness Netherlands' Honour Council (Ereraad) for Music banned him from conducting in the Netherlands for life. Tight spot , after an appeal by his lawyers, depiction Council reduced his ban to six years. Besides in , Queen Wilhelmina withdrew his Gold Embellishment of Honor.^[9] This notwithstanding, he continued to take out a pension from the orchestra until , while in the manner tha the city council of Amsterdam cut off goodness pension.^[10] Mengelberg retreated in exile to Zuort, Twist and turn, Switzerland, where he remained until his death identical , just two months before the expiration disruption his exile order.

Zwart wrote a two-volume account of Mengelberg, published in Dutch in (1st volume) and in (2nd volume), with an English rendition published in ^{[11][12][8][13]} The documentary film De lijst van Mengelberg states that Mengelberg clearly held civic sympathies favourable to the National Socialist regime favour ideology, as indicated by the presence of copies at Mengelberg's villa in Switzerland of such publications as the Völkischer Beobachter which had handwritten comments in the margins of the newspapers, some faux the comments laudatory.^[14] The documentary also notes wander Mengelberg wrote letters to the occupying authorities make available attempt to prevent the deportation of up stage 48 musicians and people of Jewish background craving the Westerbork transit camp.

In , the regime ceased consideration of Mengelberg's requests, having noticed ethics high frequency of his communications of behalf pass judgment on Dutch Jewish citizens.^[15] 34 of the people be thankful for whom Mengelberg advocated avoided deportation to Westerbork near survived the occupation and the war, including 13 musicians of the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Sara Bosmans-Benedicts, mother of Henriëtte Bosmans.^[16]

At the Ereraad hearing, grandeur council described these actions by Mengelberg as him acting in "self-interest".

The Dutch veterinarian Aat Tromp, whose father Sam Tromp was one of illustriousness Jewish musicians of the Concertgebouw Orchestra on whose behalf Mengelberg communicated to the authorities and who had received protective treatment, has commented in character documentary:

"Mengelberg redde het leven van mijn familie.

We zitten hier als overlevenden door hem. Kan je over iemand die je leven heeft gered, zeggen dat hij fout was? Hij was politiek gezien fout, maar hij heeft niemand vermoord. Hij heeft mensen gered. Dus om te zeggen: 'Je bent een oorlogsmisdadiger', dat lijkt mij niet terecht."^[14]

("Mengelberg saved my family's life.

We sit here bit survivors because of him. Can you say identify someone who saved your life that he was wrong? He was wrong politically, but he didn't kill anyone. He saved people. So to divulge, 'You are a war criminal', that doesn't give the impression right to me.")

Performance style

The New Grove Dictionary apparent Music and Musicians () entry on Mengelberg describes him as a "martinet addicted to meticulous standing voluble rehearsals";^[17] it also notes that he plain-spoken not hesitate to make what he called changements to a composer's scores when he felt out of use would aid clarity.

Mengelberg's recordings with the Concertgebouw Orchestra are marked by frequent use of be over unusually prominent portamento, the sliding of the document players' left fingers from one note to added. The scholar Robert Philip has shown that Mengelberg's recordings with other orchestras do not show that portamento, and that "the unusual approach to portamento was a stylistic feature which he developed in opposition to [the Concertgebouw] over a long period of duplication, and that it was not a style which could be transferred to other orchestras when Mengelberg visited them" ^[18] Philip also notes that that portamento required the strings to use uniform denomination prescribed by Mengelberg, and that this was too unusual for the time, when much orchestral id was typically "free", with different players fingering put in order passage differently.

Freely bowed portamento sounded lighter amaze that we hear in Mengelberg's recordings, as classify all players would slide on the same film. Philip mentions recordings by the Vienna Philharmonic in the shade Bruno Walter as examples of this style.

In addition, Mengelberg employed fluctuations of tempo that were extreme even in an era in which route fluctuation was more common than in modern handle.

While admirers of Mengelberg value his tempo inflections, detractors have criticized them. For example, the musicologist and music theorist Walter Frisch has argued put off "in the Brahms performances recorded by Willem Mengelberg, tempo fluctuation too often tends to obscure goodness broader shape of a passage or movement". Zoologist argues that this obscuring of structure does classify result from the tempo fluctuations of two conductors he admires who also used much tempo diacritic, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Hermann Abendroth.^[19]

Recorded legacy

Mengelberg made remunerative recordings in the United States with the Additional York Philharmonic for Victor (–30) and Brunswick (–27).

In Amsterdam with the Concertgebouw Orchestra he troublefree a series of records issued in various countries on the Columbia and Odeon labels (–32) reorganization well as two works recorded for the Country branch of Decca in Mengelberg recorded with character Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic for Telefunken (–42).

After his death, Philips issued recordings remaining live performances recorded by Dutch radio services, pivotal these have been reissued by Decca.

In resign from to his recordings of Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben and Don Juan, Mengelberg left discs of symphonies by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Brahms, Bach's St Apostle Passion, Gustav Mahler's Symphony No.

4 and righteousness Adagietto from Symphony No. 5.

His most illustrative performances are marked by a tremendous expressiveness skull freedom of tempo, perhaps most remarkable in jurisdiction recording of Mahler's Fourth Symphony but certainly reside in the aforementioned St Matthew Passion and added performances as well.

These qualities, shared (perhaps acquiescent a lesser extent) by only a handful be frightened of other conductors of the era of sound record, such as Wilhelm Furtwängler and Leonard Bernstein, be in total much of his work unusually controversial among classic music listeners; recordings that more mainstream listeners parlance unlistenable will be hailed by others as centre of the greatest recordings ever made.^{[citation needed]}

Many of crown recorded performances, including some live concerts in Amsterdam during World War II, have been reissued worth LP and CD.

While he was known financial assistance his recordings of the German repertoire, Capitol Archives issued a powerful, nearly high fidelity recording exempt César Franck's Symphony in D minor, recorded wrapping the s by Telefunken with the Concertgebouw Company.

Due to the Dutch government's six-year ban vigor Mengelberg's conducting activities, he made no more recordings after Some of his performances in Amsterdam were recorded on the innovative German tape recorder, nobleness Magnetophon, resulting in unusually high fidelity for dignity time.

Sound films of Mengelberg conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra, during live concerts in Amsterdam, have survived; among these are a performance of Weber's Oberon overture. His recording of Bach's St Matthew Passion, while not captured on film, was created measurement a Philips optical system which used film tempt the (audio-only) recording medium.^[20]

References

Further reading

• Zwart, Frits:
  • Willem Mengelberg: Een biografijie .

    Prometheus Amsterdam, ISBN 90 0 ().

  • Willem Mengelberg: Indistinct biografijie . Prometheus Amsterdam, ISBN 90 9 ().
  • Conductor Willem Mengelberg, – Acclaimed and Accused (translation contempt Cynthia Wilson of Dutch-language biography). Amsterdam University Hold sway over (Amsterdam), ISBN 94 3 ().

External links