- De Nederlandse Bachvereniging
-
Grote of Sint-Vituskerk, Naarden
De Nederlandse Bachvereniging is the oldest ensemble for Baroque music in the Netherlands, and possibly in the world. Choir and orchestra are internationally known as the Netherlands Bach Society. The ensemble was founded in 1921 in Naarden to perform Bach's St Matthew Passion (Matthäus-Passion) on Good Friday and has performed the work annually since then in the Grote of Sint-Vituskerk (Great Church or St Vitus Church). Jos van Veldhoven has been Artistic director and conductor since 1983.
Contents
History
First years
De Nederlandse Bachvereniging was officially founded on 13 September 1921. Johan Schoonderbeek was one of the founding members and the first conductor.[1] He had already conducted the St Matthew Passion with the Koninklijke Oratorium Vereniging Excelsior (Royal Oratorio Society Excelsior) in Den Haag. De Nederlandse Bachvereniging performed the St Matthew Passion first on Good Friday, 14 April 1922.[1] Following the praxis of the period, the work was not performed completely. Performances of the work became a tradition which has been kept since.[2]
After Schoonderbeek's death in 1927, Evert Cornelis, conductor of the Utrechts Symfonie Orkest, took over and was the first to conduct the complete work. He died in 1931.[1]
Anthon van der Horst
His successor was Anthon van der Horst, who also was the organist of the church. He established regular performances of the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor from 1931 until shortly before his death in 1965, attracting listeners from the Nederlands and abroad. He studied facsimiles and tried to keep close to the composer's intentions.[1][3] In great contrast Willem Mengelberg conducted regularly on Palm Sunday in the Concertgebouw a shortened version of the St Matthew Passion, in a romantic approach with choirs of 450 singers. Nevertheless the performances in Naarden and Amsterdam were similar at first, because orchestra players of the Concertgebouworkest and soloists were the same.
Charles de Wolff
Charles de Wolff was in 1965 the successor of Van der Horst. During this period the Concertgebouw tradition was continued by Eugen Jochum. The historically informed performance, initiated by Nikolaus Harnoncourt among others, won friends within De Nederlandse Bachvereniging, who pursued performances with smaller ensembles on period instruments. Therefore De Wolff left the Bachvereniging in 1983, to work with the Bachkoor Holland.[1][4]
Program
Since 1983 the Bachvereniging has a group of instrumentalists and singers specialized on music of the 17th and 18th century. The Bachvereniging performs about 50 concerts a year, concentrating on works of Bach and his family, his contemporaries and predecessors, such as Buxtehude, Carissimi, Charpentier, Grandi, Handel, De Koninck, Kuhnau, Mazzocchi, Monteverdi, Padbrué, Ritter, Scheidt, Schein, Schütz, Sweelinck, Telemann and Weckmann.
The artistic director since 1983 has been Jos van Veldhoven,[2] who conducts about half of the concerts. Guest conductors have included Gustav Leonhardt, Paul McCreesh, Philippe Herreweghe, Frans Brüggen, Iván Fischer and Masaaki Suzuki. To keep the experience of the St Matthew Passion "fresh not only for himself but also for the players and for audiences", guest conductors have been invited every other year. Some of them conducted the work for the first time in Naarden, such as Ton Koopman and René Jacobs.[1][2] Atzo Nicolai, minister of the Netherlands who regularly attends, stated: "St. Matthew’ during Holy Week is bigger in the Netherlands than Messiah at Christmas anywhere else".[2]
Education
The Bachvereniging has collaborated with schools in a project to create interest in Bach's St Matthew Passion, reaching several hundred students and their teachers. In guest lessons, rehearsals, an interactive CD-Rom and a website, the students are prepared to actually listen to a concert in a well informed way.
List of conductors of The Passion
- 1922–1925: Johan Schoonderbeek
- 1926–1927: Siegfried Ochs
- 1929–1930: Evert Cornelis
- 1931–1959: Anton van der Horst
- 1958: Felix de Nobel
- 1959–1964: Anton van der Horst
- 1965-1983: Charles de Wolff
- 1984: Jos van Immerseel
- 1985: Ton Koopman
- 1990: René Jacobs
- 1991: Philippe Herreweghe
- 1992: Ton Koopman
- 1993: Jos van Veldhoven
- 1994: Iván Fischer
- 1995: Gustav Leonhardt
- 1996: René Jacobs
- 1997: Jos van Veldhoven
- 1998: Sigiswald Kuijken
- 1999: Hans-Christoph Rademann
- 2000-2001: Jos van Veldhoven
- 2002: Gustav Leonhardt
- 2003: Marcus Creed
- 2004: Jos van Veldhoven
- 2005: Masaaki Suzuki
- 2006: Jos van Veldhoven
- 2007: Richard Egarr
- 2008: Jos van Veldhoven
- 2009: Lars Ulrik Mortensen
- 2010: Jos van Veldhoven
Recordings
They recorded, among others, in 1998 Bach's St Matthew Passion, conducted by Jos van Veldhoven, with Gerd Türk as the Evangelist, Geert Smits as Vox Christi, Johannette Zomer, Andreas Scholl, Hans Jörg Mammel and Peter Kooy[5], released on Channel Classics Records.
References
- ^ a b c d e f De dirigenten Matthäus-Passion in Naarden allesopeenrij.nl 2010
- ^ a b c d Matthew Gurewitsch: Playing the Numbers When Putting Voice to Bach The New York Times 15 April 2007
- ^ Anthon van der Horst (Conductor) bach-cantatas.com 2001
- ^ Charles de Wolff (Conductor, Organ) bach-cantatas.com 2001
- ^ Bach: Matthäus-passion / Veldhoven, Netherlands Bach Society arkivmusic.com 1998
External links
- De Nederlandse Bachvereniging website
- De Nederlandse Bachvereniging (Choir & Baroque Orchestra) bach-cantatas.com 2006
- The Netherlands Bach Society Konzertdirektion Andrea Hampl
- De Nederlandse Bachvereniging at Allmusic
- Matthew Gurewitsch: Playing the Numbers When Putting Voice to Bach The New York Times 15 April 2007
Categories: Early music choirs | Early music orchestras | Musical groups established in 1921 | Johann Sebastian Bach | Dutch orchestras
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