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CHAN 9796 Front.qxd 24/8/07 10:21 am Page 1 CHAN 9796 CHANDOS HOL premiere recordings CHAN 9796 BOOK.qxd 24/8/07 10:23 am Page 2 Richard Hol (1825–1904) Symphony No. 1 23:59 in C minor . c-Moll . ut mineur 1 I Larghetto – Allegro con fuoco 8:23 2 II Larghetto 5:06 3 III Presto 3:51 4 IV Allegro molto 6:30 Symphony No. 3, Op. 101 30:47 in B flat major . B-Dur . si bémol majeur 5 I Einleitung und Allegro 11:37 6 II Scherzo 3:48 7 III Nachtmusik 8:56 8 IV Finale 6:11 TT 54:59 Residentie Orchestra The Hague Matthias Bamert Richard Hol 3 CHAN 9796 BOOK.qxd 24/8/07 10:23 am Page 4 increasingly in demand as a conductor, in female choirs, children’s choirs, with and Hol: Symphonies Nos 1 & 3 particular of those many choirs The without piano, organ or orchestra. His works Netherlands boasted in the nineteenth for children’s choir were hugely popular century. For over four decades he conducted during the second half of the nineteenth Chauvinism is an attitude the Dutch do not many outstanding composers. Leading up to the choirs of the Maatschappij tot century. Next to these he wrote several understand very well. In business over the the Residentie Orchestra’s centenary in 2004 Bevordering der Toonkunst (Society for the hundreds of songs for one and two voices, art centuries this has proved to yield great a new project has been started, of Dutch Advancement of Music, founded in 1829) in songs as well as educational songs. Out of the profits. However for the arts and especially music over the last two centuries. This disc is Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and latter category several became real classics for such an intangible art as music the result the first of these, with two symphonies by Utrecht, but also the orchestras of the which were reprinted time and again, well has been less favourable. Until well into the Brahms’s contemporary Richard Hol. We Collegium Musicum Ultrajectinum in into the twentieth century. twentieth century it was common knowledge hope you will enjoy it. Utrecht and of the Society Diligentia in The As with his music for choirs, Hol’s that the Dutch did not produce music of Hague. With his orchestras he introduced considerably smaller number of instrumental quality between Sweelinck (1562–1621) and At the end of a long and rewarding life, many ‘new’ scores by Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, scores was the result of his work as a Diepenbrock (1862–1921), and still Dutch Richard Hol (1825–1904) was hailed as a Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Dvoˇrák and conductor. Thus most of his excellent music is not generally accepted on concert composer, conductor, organ and piano Richard Strauss. orchestral works are related to his programmes as British music is in the UK. soloist, and an educator with exceptional As a composer Richard Hol was a lifelong appointments in Utrecht and The Hague. One of the first musicologists who gave gifts and a great influence on Dutch musical advocate of Dutch music, although most of Richard Hol wrote four symphonies (in Dutch music a lifelong support was life of the second half of the nineteenth the time he graciously left the performance C minor, 1863; in D minor, 1866; in B flat Diepenbrock scholar Eduard Reeser. The century. The son of an Amsterdam milkman, of this to its respective composers. Finally, he major, 1867/1884; and in A major, 1889) second scholar was Willem Noske, collector Richard Hol, whose Christian name was gave much energy to initiatives supporting a and a few shorter pieces for orchestra, among of Dutch music and leader of the Residentie originally the typically old Dutch ‘Rijk’, Dutch opera company. He premiered many which are Erklärung (after Heine, 1860), the Orchestra. Under his guidance (and proved to be highly musical. He studied at Dutch operas himself and had much success overture Gaudeamus igitur (1863) and Actus supported by Piet Veenstra, artistic manager the Royal Music School in Amsterdam and with his own opera Floris V (1892). However, tragicus in F minor (1892). of the orchestra), the Residentie Orchestra started his career after graduating in 1844, after a severe illness in 1895, Hol gradually Although the existence of four symphonies recorded in the 1980s two boxes (each accompanying the vocal and instrumental retired from his manifold duties in Dutch suggests a certain link with Johannes Brahms, containing six long-playing records) of 400 virtuosi of his day while composing for them musical life. in reality most of these works show that Hol years of Dutch music. This caused a renewed his first pieces. At the same time he earned Through his career as a conductor of was much more influenced by German evaluation of Dutch music of the past. his living teaching piano, organ and music choirs and an accompanist for singers, Hol composers of the first half of the century, in Research on the eighteenth and nineteenth theory. composed numerous vocal works mainly on particular Schubert and Schumann. This century in particular revealed the music of From 1854 onwards Richard Hol was Dutch texts for mixed choirs, male and strong bond between Dutch and German 4 5 CHAN 9796 BOOK.qxd 24/8/07 10:23 am Page 6 music lasted until the first decade of the performance, however, was cancelled and 1867 Hol conducted Rubinstein’s ‘Ocean’ performance, as a reviewer remarked after the twentieth century, as for example in the Hol’s symphony was replaced by one of Symphony and it is quite possible that he premiere on 6 December 1884. works of Johannes van Bree (1801–1857), Beethoven’s. met Rubinstein on the latter’s Dutch tour a Johannes Verhulst (1816 –1891), Richard A striking feature of the four-movement year later. If 1867 is indeed the year of © 2000 Leo Samama Hol and most music by Alphons symphony is the well-balanced orchestration. composition, this explains also the motto of Diepenbrock. There were many German Although the orchestral bravura of Liszt or the Scherzo, Erinnerung an Mendelssohn, The writer wishes to thank Dick van Heuvel artists living in The Netherlands as Wagner is lacking (as in most Dutch music 4. Nov. 1847, where the inscribed date is two for his research on Hol. conductors, composers or instrumentalists. of that time), the wind instruments are decades earlier. If this all is true, then Hol The German Opera in Rotterdam was beautifully brought out by tuneful melodies must have waited until 1884 before either The Residentie Orchestra is one of The well-known and premiered several of within a natural harmonic flow. Several orchestrating or even completing the Netherlands’ leading orchestras. It has built a Wagner’s operas. themes, and certainly the way symphony in full and having it published. reputation abroad, partly as a result of By 1850 the orchestral scores of Berlioz accompaniments are shaped, remind us of This symphony consists of four foreign tours including New York, Boston, and Liszt and the early operas of Wagner had Schubert’s ‘Great C major’ Symphony. On movements: Einleitung (Langsam) und Allegro Chicago, London, Vienna and Berlin. gradually become familiar to audiences. Liszt the other hand Hol’s melodies are typically (Lebhaft), Scherzo (Ziemlich rasch), Evgenii Svetlanov has been its principal was much hailed as a piano virtuoso on his Dutch in their modesty and somewhat stiff Nachtmusik (Langsam doch bewegt – Schnell – conductor since 1992, and in September tours to The Netherlands, and both progression: for example, the second theme Tempo I) and Finale (Rasch und kräftig). The 2000 the post will be assumed by Jaap van Schumann (by 1850) and Brahms (by 1880) in the first movement and the rather angular instrumentation and harmonic structure of Zweden. The founder and first conductor of had their own circle of supportive friends in rhythms in the finale, which are effectively this symphony are more daring and surprising the Orchestra was Dr Henri Viotta. Many Utrecht, The Hague and Amsterdam. alternated with reminiscences of the first than in the previous symphonies, its distinguished conductors followed including A Dutch Wagner Society was founded in movement’s Larghetto. counterpoint more elaborate. On the other van Anrooy, Schuurman, van Otterloo, 1883. The Symphony in B flat major, Op. 101 hand Hol’s melodies are less catchy here and Martinon, Leitner, Vonk, Toscanini, Walter Hol’s Symphony No. 1 in C minor, was (his third, but Hol numbered his scores only slip too easily from the memory. Nevertheless, and Knappertsbusch, and major composers completed by 1863 and awarded a prize by in the event of publication) was completed the Mendelssohnian Scherzo is enchanting who have conducted the orchestra include the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der by 1884. It is dedicated to the Russian and fairylike, and the intimate Nachtmusik Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Ravel, Toonkunst later that year. The first composer and pianist Anton Rubinstein who with its scherzo-like interludes is quite Hindemith, Bernstein, Maderna and Boulez. performance took place in Utrecht during visited The Netherlands in 1868, 1878 and accomplished. As in the First Symphony, Hol After years without a permanent base, the the first subscription concert of the 1863–4 1885. A specific reason for this dedication quotes in the Third’s alternately exuberant Residentie Orchestra initiated the building of season. A second performance was scheduled seems lacking, unless the real date of and introspective finale material of the first its own hall in 1987, the Dr Anton by the orchestra of the Society Felix Meritis composition was 1867 instead of the movement, as if to carry the listener back to Philipszaal, situated in the heart of The in Amsterdam during the same season.