Richard Pennycuick wrote:
>Yesterday a friend played me some of an Eloquence CD containing
>Debussy's La Mer, Nocturnes and Images in performances recorded in the
>50s by Eduard van Beinum, and very impressive they were. The orchestra
>is credited as the Royal Concertgebouw. I'm not sure when the
>Concertgebouw became known as the Royal Concertgebouw but it certainly
>wasn't known by that name in the 50s. ...
I've been curious about this for a time now, so I decided to do some
digging. I managed to find the web pages for the Concertgebouw and the
Orchestra, however the English links to the history page for the orchestra
seem to be broken, though I managed to find it anyway. Since it's not
readily reachable on the web, here are some pertinent (as well as just
interesting) paragraphs from their site. It's interesting to note that in
their 112-year history, the orchestra has had only five music directors.
Formation
After years of planning, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam celebrated
its festive opening on 11 April 1888. The city could finally boast
a full-fledged music "temple" which quickly proved to be one of the
most beautiful concert halls in the world. Six months later, the
Concertgebouw Orchestra, founded specifically for this concert hall,
gave its first concert on 3 November 1888. Under the leadership of
conductors Willem Kes and Willem Mengelberg, the orchestra grew within
a few decades into one of the leading ensembles in Europe.
As early as 1897, Richard Strauss described the orchestra as "really
magnificent, full of youthful enthusiasm", and from the beginning of
the twentieth century, dozens of composers and conductors flocked to
Amsterdam to work with this famous orchestra. At its centennial
celebration in 1988, the orchestra received the predicate "Royal".
The orchestra is considered worldwide to be one of the prominent
symphony orchestras with its own unique character.
The Chief Conductors
Following a series of illustrious predecessors - Willem Kes (1888-1895),
Willem Mengelberg (1888-1945), Eduard van Beinum (1945-1959) and
Bernard Haitink (1963-1988) - Riccardo Chailly accepted the position
of chief conductor. Under his leadership, the orchestra has enjoyed
a very successful national and international career. Moreover, the
orchestra's repertoire is continually expanding and growing. In
November 1998Riccardo Chailly celebrated his tenth anniversary with
the orchestra by conducting a performance of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony.
In January 1999 Bernard Haitink, was named honorary conductor of the
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as a tribute to his outstanding
contribution to the orchestra during his 25 years as chief conductor.
The Musicians
The 115 first-rate musicians currently comprising the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra are not only exceptional virtuosi on their
individual instruments. Collectively, they also nurture that particular
playing style which has given the orchestra its unique sound and
flexibility. With her "velvety" strings, the "golden" tones of the
brass, and what is often described as the "typically Dutch" timbre
of the woodwinds, the orchestra has procured a place among the top
world-renown orchestras. The nearly one thousand recordings that
the orchestra has to her name have also contributed to her fame.
Collaboration with Composers
During the fifty years that Willem Mengelberg reigned supreme,
relationships were forged with a wide diversity of composers, such
as Richard Strauss, Mahler, Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg,
Hindemith, Schreker and Milhaud, all of whom directed the Concertgebouw
Orchestra on more than one occasion. Others, among them, Bartok,
Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, performed as soloists in their own
compositions. This contact with contemporary composers, so essential
to an orchestra, carried on after the Second World War with composers
such as Peter Schat, Luciano Berio, Luigi Nono, and Bruno Maderna,
who also conducted. For the 2000-2001 season, the orchestra has
already commissioned works by such diverse composers as Wolfgang
Rihm, Peter Schat and Giya Kancheli.
Mahler and Bruckner
The orchestra has especially earned acclaim with her interpretations
of Late Romantic repertoire, such as Mahler, Bruckner and R. Strauss.
The Mahler tradition, rooted in the many performances conducted here
by Mahler himself, reached its first highlight during the Mahler
Festival in 1920. Although Mahler's works have always constituted
a large portion of the Concertgebouw Orchestra's repertoire, it was
Bernard Haitink who gave the tradition a new impetus with his complete
recordings of all the Mahler symphonies and by programming Mahler in
the series of Christmas matinees. Riccardo Chailly has continued in
this vein with new interpretations.
The majority of these interpretations of Mahler's symphonies has
since been recorded on CD. The Mahler Festival in May 1995, which
featured the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic orchestras
as well as the RCO, caused quite an international sensation. The
performance of Mahler's Eighth Symphony, under the direction of
Riccardo Chailly, was considered one of the highlights of the festival.
Anton Bruckner is another composer whose work has become an integral
part of the orchestra's repertoire. Eduard Beinum, in particular,
introduced not only the symphonies of Bruckner but also the music of
French composers to the orchestra after the Second World War. The
performances and various CD recordings of the RCO under the leadership
of Riccardo Chailly have contributed significantly in recent years
to the renewal of Bruckner interpretations.
Dave
[log in to unmask]
http://www.classical.net/
|