Hendrik Andriessen - Symphonic Works, Vol. 2 (David Porcelijn)

Information

Composer: Hendrik Andriessen

• Symphony No. 2
• Ricercare
• Mascherata
• Wilhelmus Rhapsody

Netherlands Symphony Orchestra

David Porcelijn, conductor

Date: 2013

Label: CPO

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Review

Hendrik Andriessen (father of the better-known Louis) is a natural target for the attentions of CPO and the excellent Netherlands Symphony Orchestra under David Porcelijn as part of their survey of Dutch orchestral music. A considerable force in his country’s music for much of his long life (1892-1981) as composer, performer, musicologist and administrator, Andriessen is now remembered chiefly for his organ music. But there are also four symphonies, which occasionally find their way into the recording catalogues (Nos 2 and 3 on Donemus, No 4 on Olympia).

The Second Symphony (1937) is virtually a manifesto for neo-classical modesty – its three movements add up to less than 19 minutes. The music seems constantly on the brink of serious issues but then somehow compulsively shies away from them. Similarly the Ricercare of 1949, emblematically based on the BACH motif, impresses by its ingenuity and crams a lot of contrapuntal invention into its 10-minute span but at the cost of a certain short-windedness. Mascherata, composed for the Concertgebouw 25 years further after the Symphony, stays broadly faithful to the same aesthetic. Its four movements are designed as dialogues with characters from the commedia dell’arte. But that’s not to say that they are in any way flippant or inconsequential. If anything they are more developed, and darker in tone, than their counterparts in the Symphony. Finally, Wilhelmus van Nassouwe (1950-51) is a rhapsody on the Dutch national anthem, but more wiry and tough-minded than that description might suggest.

Andriessen’s clean-cut lines, resourceful, often polytonal harmonies and succinct mode of expression are undoubtedly appealing and worthy of admiration. Place the Symphony stylistically in a triangle between Roussel, Martin≤ and Vaughan Williams’s Fourth, and you wouldn’t be far wrong. But look for comparable urgency and individuality, and you may be a little disappointed. Still, recording and documentation are all first-rate, and I for one look forwards to a recording of the superbly lean and energetic Fourth Symphony from this source.

— David Fanning

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Hendrik Andriessen (17 September 1892 – 12 April 1981) was a Dutch composer and organist. Born in Haarlem, he studied at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and became organist at Utrecht Cathedral in 1934. He taught also composition in Amsterdam and Utrecht and served as director of the Utrecht Conservatory (1937–1949). During World War II, he resisted cooperating with the Nazis and was held hostage in 1942. After the war, he led the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (1949–1957) and taught at the Catholic University in Nijmegen. His compositions include symphonies, masses, chamber music, and organ works.

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David Porcelijn (born 7 January 1947) is a Dutch composer and conductor. He studied flute, composition, and conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Music in The Hague. Porcelijn has conducted major orchestras worldwide, including the London Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony. He held leading roles with ensembles such as the Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, and the RTS Symphony Orchestra in Belgrade. A co-founder of Ensemble M, he promoted contemporary music from 1974 to 1978. Porcelijn has recorded extensively and taught conducting in both the Netherlands and Australia.

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