- Julius Röntgen
Julius Röntgen (
9 May 1855 –13 September 1932 ) was a German-Dutchcomposer ofclassical music .Life
Julius Röntgen was born in
Leipzig ,Germany , to a family of musicians. His father, Engelbert Röntgen, was first violinist in the Gewandhaus orchestra inLeipzig ; his mother, Pauline Klengel, was a pianist.Julius was a gifted child. Neither he nor his sisters attended school; he was taught music by his parents and grandparents, and other subjects by private tutors. His first piano teacher was
Carl Reinecke , the director of the Gewandhaus orchestra, while his early compositions were influenced by Reinecke, but also byRobert Schumann ,Franz Liszt andJohannes Brahms .In 1870, at the age of 14, Julius Röntgen visited
Franz Liszt inWeimar ; after playing piano for him he was invited to a soiree at Liszt's house.In Leipzig, he and his parents were part of the musical circle around
Heinrich von Herzogenberg , and it was at their house that he first met Brahms. Later Röntgen moved toMunich , where he studied piano underFranz Lachner , a friend ofFranz Schubert . At the age of 18 he became a professional pianist. During a concert tour through southern Germany he became acquainted with the singer Julius Stockhausen; at this time he also met a Swedish music student Amanda Maier, whom he would marry in 1880.In 1877 Röntgen had to make a decision whether to go to
Vienna orAmsterdam . He chose Amsterdam, and became a piano teacher in the music school there. Prof. Lohmann, who was professor of theology at the University of Amsterdam and an important figure in the cultural life of that city, was a friend of Röntgen's father, and he promised to take young Julius under his wing. According to Röntgen's letter of 1877 he considered the school "a place full of children and amateurs"; since the school was not supported by public funds, it appeared to attach more importance to the number of its students rather than their quality.Between 1878 and 1885 Brahms was a frequent visitor in
Amsterdam . In 1887 Röntgen performed Brahms's second piano concerto, conducted by the composer himself. In 1883, in association with composers Frans Coenen and Daniel de Lange, Röntgen was instrumental in the foundation of the Amsterdam Conservatory.In 1884 Röntgen was heavily involved in the foundation of the
Concertgebouw . He applied for the position of the director; however, to his great disappointment, the choice fell instead on the GermanHans von Bülow , as the committee seemed to doubt Röntgen's abilities as a conductor. Nevertheless Bülow was not able to accept the appointment, and the position went in the end to the violinist Willem Kes.Röntgen turned with greater energy to composing chamber music and to his work for the Conservatory. He became a renowned accompanying pianist, working for the great violinist Carl Flesch, the singer Johannes Messchaert, and the cello player
Pablo Casals . Travelling with Messchaert he came to Vienna at least once a year, where he would always look up Brahms.During the quiet summer periods in Amsterdam Röntgen and his family often went to
Denmark . On one of such visits he met Bodil de Neergaard, with whom he struck a close friendship. As a result of his close contacts with Denmark, Röntgen's children became fluent speakers of Danish.For some years, Röntgen and his sons performed together as a piano trio. After the death of his wife Amanda in 1894, Röntgen married the gifted piano teacher Abrahamina des Amorie van der Hoeven. The children of the second marriage also became professional musicians.
At the end of the
First World War , in 1919, Röntgen became a naturalized Dutch citizen. One of his sons was taken prisoner by the Germans during the war, while another son emigrated to theUSA where he became a soldier in the US army. As a result, Röntgen was for many years unable to visit his native Germany.In 1924 Röntgen retired from public life. He moved to
Bilthoven , a small village near Utrecht. His son Frans, one of the few children who did not follow a musical career, built for him the country house "Gaudeamus". The unusual round music room in that house was constructed in such a way that its floor did not touch the ground. During the last eight years of his life Röntgen wrote about 100 compositions (some accounts put this nearer 200), mostly chamber music and songs. "Gaudeamus" became a meeting place for many important composers and musicians; among the visitors in that house wereEdvard Grieg ,Pablo Casals andPercy Grainger . At that time Röntgen studied musical analysis, and was interested in the work of Hindemith, Stravinsky, Schönberg andWillem Pijper .In 1930 Röntgen received an honorary doctorate from the
University of Edinburgh , where his friendDonald Francis Tovey was professor. During the visit Tovey performed a new Röntgen symphony with theReid Orchestra and Röntgen was the soloist in his most recent two piano concertos in the same programme. AfterSecond World War the villa "Gaudeamus" became the seat of the "Gaudeamus society", whose aim is to promote contemporary Dutch music.In the last year of his life Röntgen experimented with atonal music; he wrote a bi-tonal symphony which, however, was never published. Sometimes he would perform as a piano accompanist in the
Tuschinski cinema in Amsterdam, where he played popular and folk pieces which he composed himself together with Dirk van der Ven. He also made recordings onplayer piano rolls.Röntgen died in Utrecht,
The Netherlands in 1932.Works
Julius Röntgen's works include 18 symphonies, concertos (7 piano concertos, 3 violin concertos, 3 cello concertos, other concertos), as well as numerous chamber, piano and vocal works.
External links
* [http://www.juliusrontgen.nl Julius Röntgen Foundation]
* [http://ahowe1.tripod.com/juliusrontgensocietyuk/ Röntgen Society Page]
*IMSLP|id=Röntgen, Julius|cname=Julius Röntgen
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