CHAN 10020 Front.qxd 24/4/07 1:10 pm Page 1 CHAN 10020 CHANDOS CHAN 10020 BOOK.qxd 24/4/07 1:15 pm Page 2 Johannes Verhulst (1816–1891) premiere recording Mass, Op. 20 for 4 solo voices, choir and orchestra 1 Kyrie. Adagio 6:58 2 Gloria. Allegro – Andante – Recitative – Tempo I – Allegro – Tempo I – Tempo di Gloria ma più presto – Tempo di Gloria – Allegro – Più presto – Tempo di Gloria 18:48 3 Credo. Allegro – Lento non troppo – L’istesso tempo – Allegro – Adagio – Tempo di Credo – Tempo di Et resurrexit – Con fuoco – Lento sostenuto 15:12 4 Offertorium (Inclina Domine). Grave maestoso 4:29 A.J. Ehnle/Gemeentemuseum, The Hague A.J. Ehnle/Gemeentemuseum, 5 Lithograph by P. Blommers after drawing by Blommers P. Lithograph by Sanctus. Largo – Allegro molto – Tempo di Sanctus – Lento – 5:07 6 Benedictus. Andante 4:07 7 Agnus Dei. Adagio – Allegro 9:43 TT 64:55 Nienke Oostenrijk soprano Margriet van Reisen contralto Marcel Reijans tenor Hubert Claessens bass The Netherlands Concert Choir Johannes Verhulst Rob Vermeulen chorus master Residentie Orchestra The Hague Matthias Bamert 3 CHAN 10020 BOOK.qxd 24/4/07 1:15 pm Page 4 and theory courses. He progressed quickly, E minor (completed shortly before the event), Verhulst: Mass, Op. 20 and as early as 1831 the young Verhulst was a psalm setting, and the Kyrie and Gloria engaged as a violinist in the Court orchestra (written in 1840) from the Mass. The of King Willem I, the Court Chapel. During following autumn, now a famous man, he Chauvinism is an attitude the Dutch do not music by many composers. In preparation for these early years he studied orchestration travelled to The Netherlands to conduct his understand very well. Over the centuries this the Residentie Orchestra’s centenary in 2004 with Christiaan Hanssens jr, the conductor own music in The Hague. The success was has proved greatly profitable in business. a new recording project has been launched, of the French opera, the Théâtre français de immense. King Willem II knighted him and However, for the arts, and especially for such exploring Dutch music of the last two La Haye, and won several prizes with his first offered him the directorship of the Royal an intangible art as music, the result has been centuries. This disc is the eighth in the series, vocal and instrumental works. music. Verhulst accepted and moved back to less favourable. Until well into the twentieth offering music by Johannes Verhulst, a In 1836 Felix Mendelssohn visited The Hague. Being a Dutch composer, he now century it was widely thought that the Dutch student of Mendelssohn’s and friend of Scheveningen, the sea resort by The Hague. devoted himself to the task of writing Dutch produced no music of quality between the Schumann’s. We hope you will enjoy it. Lübeck did not hesitate to present a score by songs, many of which show great originality. eras of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck his protégé to the German master. Although And in the summer of 1843 he completed the (1562–1621) and Alphons Diepenbrock Verhulst is for the Dutch a well-known Mendelssohn was known as a teacher and Mass, presenting it to an enthusiastic audience (1862–1921), and, while British music is name: several major cities have a Johannes musician accepting only the highest in 1847. regularly performed in Great Britain, Dutch Verhulst Street or Verhulst Square. Still, very standards, he invited Verhulst to come and The following year Verhulst was appointed music is still not a widely accepted item on few know that Johannes Verhulst was a study with him in Leipzig. Having obtained Director of Music for the Rotterdam chapter Dutch concert programmes. One of the first composer and conductor who reigned over an official stipend, Verhulst thus travelled to of the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der musicologists to give Dutch music lifelong Dutch musical life for some forty years. Germany in January 1838, and remained Toonkunst (MBT), The Netherlands’ support was the Diepenbrock scholar Eduard Johannes Josephus Hermanus Verhulst was there for almost five years. Mendelssohn’s Foundation for the Promotion of Music. In Reeser. Another was Willem Noske, collector born in The Hague in 1816. As a boy he friends became his, too, and Schumann this capacity he was in artistic charge of the of Dutch music and leader of the Residentie sang in a church choir, where his musical praised the young Dutchman in his Neue prestigious music festival which was held in Orchestra. Under his guidance (and with the talents were recognised by Johann Heinrich Zeitschrift für Musik; soon Verhulst was Rotterdam in 1854 to mark MBT’s silver support of Piet Veenstra, artistic manager of Lübeck, director of the Royal Music School. appointed music director of Leipzig’s popular jubilee. A large concert hall, constructed of the Orchestra) the Residentie Orchestra in As members of the lower middle class, Euterpe concerts. With this ensemble he timber, was erected specially for the occasion the 1980s recorded two box sets traversing Verhulst’s parents could not imagine a career introduced many new scores, acting in direct and such international celebrities as Franz 400 years of Dutch music. This led to a in music for their son; because of his talent competition with the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Liszt and Anton Rubinstein were invited to re-evaluation of Dutch music of the past. for drawing, they intended him to become a In January 1842 Verhulst organised a special perform. Verhulst himself impressed the Research into the eighteenth and nineteenth lithographer. Lübeck, however, persuaded concert with Euterpe for the performance of public with the first performance in Holland centuries, in particular, revealed outstanding them to enrol the youngster also in violin some of his own works: the Symphony in of Handel’s Israel in Egypt (in an arrangement 4 5 CHAN 10020 BOOK.qxd 24/4/07 1:15 pm Page 6 of his own, including trumpets, timpani and night performed Handel’s Joshua in his own standard for performance of the music of this Amsterdam as well. Soon he withdrew from horns) and with his interpretation of re-orchestration; one may imagine the composer. It was Verhulst who familiarised public life altogether and found refuge with Beethoven’s Choral Symphony. mesmerising effect on the audience of the the Dutch public with the works of his eldest daughter in her home in The admired conductor was sought after concluding triumphal chorus! The second Schumann, Gade (another personal friend Bloemendaal, a village near Haarlem, where also in other centres of music and, in quick day was devoted to works by native and kindred spirit) and Brahms. And the he died on 17 January 1891, an embittered succession, three major appointments came composers. On this occasion, as one respect he enjoyed was international, as man. his way: in 1860 Verhulst succeeded Lübeck contemporary declared, it was ‘above all the demonstrated by his being named an Verhulst’s growing conservatism as a as director of the Diligentia concerts in The lovely music of the Mass by Verhulst that honorary member of London’s Royal musical leader had a detrimental effect on the Hague, and in 1864 was named conductor of enchanted the listeners’. In addition to Philharmonic Society in 1859. public’s appreciation of his own compositions, the Toonkunst choir and of the philharmonic Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, once again At home, however, his supreme rule began most of which were written before the age of society Caecilia in Amsterdam. When that given an inspired reading, the concluding to meet with resistance because his interests thirty-five. In fact, it doomed his works to same year Verhulst was also placed in charge matinée featured the first performance in in programme-building extended little almost total obscurity for they have hardly of the Felix Meritis Orchestra (the country’s The Netherlands of Brahms’s Violin beyond the idioms of Mendelssohn and been heard since his death. It is to be hoped best ensemble until the creation of the Concerto, with Joseph Joachim as soloist. Schumann. He categorically refused to that the present recording will demonstrate Concertgebouw Orchestra) he commanded That night, at a gala dinner, Verhulst was perform the works of Berlioz, Liszt, and his the great injustice of this fate. the most prestigious positions in the musical idolised. greatest bugbear, Richard Wagner. This led to Before Verhulst began writing his Mass, life of The Netherlands. From that point on His significance for the musical life in increasingly vociferous protests in the press Op. 20, for massed choir, soloists and full he was indeed the ‘only one’, the most Holland was tremendous, chiefly because he and from the public and sparked a conflict orchestra, no Dutch composer had produced accomplished and acclaimed musician in The masterminded a distinct improvement in the between him and the board members of a sacred work on such a scale. Moreover, the Netherlands. It meant, however, that he had quality of ensemble playing in this country. Diligentia. By 1883 Verhulst was forced to work was to remain the only one of its kind very little time left for composition. In his control of the orchestra he was a relinquish the podium to allow the in Holland for a long time. The score gives The greatest triumph of his musical career virtuoso, praised for his great precision in performance of Wagner’s music under the evidence not only of a youthful and daring came with the three-day music festival achieving shades of tonal lightness and baton of his Utrecht colleague Richard Hol. panache and a richness of melodic invention, celebrating MBT’s golden jubilee in May darkness, as well as his delicate approach to These differences led in the end to a but of a confident grasp of form and perfect 1879 in the great hall of the Paleis voor phrasing and to the realisation of rhythmic break.