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Date: | Thu, 1 Apr 1999 10:55:03 +0100 |
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The first part of the biography of Willem Mengelberg - still reckoned the
best Dutch conductor ever - has just been published. Written by Frits
Zwart, it covers the years 1871 to 1920, concentrating particularly on the
period 1895 - when the then 24-year-old Mengelberg was appointed musical
director of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam - to 1920, when he
organised the first Mahler Festival. According to the review of the book
(I have not yet read it myself), Mengelberg is still an influential figure
in the life of the Concertgebouw. His scores - many hundreds of them -
contain his notes written broadly in red and blue pencil and these scores
have all been carefully preserved. In fact, the present musical director
of the Concertgebouw Chailly still uses Mengelberg's scores when preparing
a new work for performance.
If we are to believe Zwart, Mengelberg was an autocrat. He quotes the
violinist Heuwekemeijer: "When you talk about Mengelberg, you are talking
about authority. Authority corrupts, and absolute authority corrupts
absolutely. We are talking about a period when authority was absolute. We
must remember that when judging Mengelberg as a person. In all the years
that I played under Mengelberg (Heuwekemeijer joined the orchestra in 1935
- note JE) I spoke to his for no more than five minutes. That shows the
situation that existed. He thought of musicians as instruments, not
people... one bad musicians can ruin everything. I had only been in the
orchestra for a week when I heard him shout this for the first time. I
never really sat comfortably from then on.... You worked under Mengelberg,
not with Mengelberg. He determined everything, even for the soloists. He
would say: 'I'll tell you what to play.' He totally ignored the musical
potential of the orchestral players. It would go too far to say he was
hated. He was admired. And I have to say that what he achieved with the
orchestral, which played on a much lower level than today's Concertgebouw,
was phenomenal."
The book "Willem Mengelberg: een biografie 1871-1920" by Frits Zwart has
487 pages and is published (I think only in Dutch) by Prometheus.
Jonathan
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