Danzi Quintet

The Danzi Quintet was a Dutch wind quintet, one of the most highly regarded quintets active in the 1960s and 1970s

The quintet took its name from the 18th/19th-century composer Franz Danzi (a notable early composer of wind quintets), and was founded in 1956 or 1957 by the flutist Frans Vester. It was composed of members of the Concertgebouw and Dutch Opera Orchestras, and was initially formed in order to perform the Dutch premiere of Arnold Schoenberg's Wind Quintet, op. 26, which they did—after 107 rehearsals over the course of a year—at the 1958 Holland Festival (Keller 1958, 450; Thomson 1985, 289). The other founding members of the quintet were Leo Driehuys (oboe), Pem Godri (clarinet), Brian Pollard (bassoon), and Adriaan van Woudenberg (horn) (Schat and Escher 1992, 51). Vester played in the quintet for the entire period of its existence and was also its artistic director. Koen van Slogteren soon took over the position of oboist, and shortly afterward Piet Honingh became the clarinetist. Slogteren remained until 1971 (Schat and Escher 1992, 75). He was succeeded by Maarten Karres, then in 1973 by Han de Vries (Leur 2001), and later by Jan Spronk.

The Danzi Quintet acquired international fame, especially for their performances of contemporary music (Anon. 1961; Schat and Escher 1992, 51; Smilde 1988; Thomson 1985, 289).

Many composers wrote works for the Danzi Quintet, amongst others Rob du Bois (Chants en contrepoints, 1962 and Réflexions sur le jour où Pérotin le Grand ressuscitera, 1969), Peter Schat (Improvisations and Symphonies, opus 11, 1960), Ton de Leeuw (Antiphony, for wind quintet and four-channel tape, 1960), Misha Mengelberg (Omtrent een componistenactie, 1966), and Jan van Vlijmen (Second Wind Quintet, 1972).

Sources

• Anon. 1959. "Wind Quintets: Common Antiseptic Quality". The Times (London) (Wednesday 25 March): 13.
• Anon. 1961. "Musical Chairs". The Times (London) (Thursday 26 October): 18.
• Keller, Hans. 1958. "Reports from Abroad: Holland Festival" The Musical Times 99, no. 1386 (August): 449–50.
• Leur, Truus de. 2001. "Vries, Han (Libbe [Samuel]) de". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Schat, Peter, and Rudolf Escher. 1992. Peter Schat, Rudolph Escher: brieven, 1958–1961, edited by Erik Voermans. Bibliotheek Nederlandse muziek 3. Hilversum: Centrum Netherlandse Muziek; Zutphen: Walburg Pers. ISBN 9060117867
• Smilde, Rineke. 1988. "Het Danzi Kwintet: een invloedrijk ensemble: een inventarisatie van diverse aspecten die bij de muzikale groei van een ensemble een rol spelen: een en ander belicht aan de hand van partituren die de ontwikkeling van het Danzi Kwintet mede hebben bepaald". Doctoral dissertation in musicology, University of Amsterdam.
• Thomson, J[ohn] M[ansfield]. 1985. "[Review of] Concerning the Flute by Rien de Reede". Early Music 13, no. 2 (May): 289–91.
• Zomeren, Koos van. 2005. "Geváárlijke symfonieën" (interview with Piet Honingh). NRC Handelsblad (Wednesday 16 November).