De Nederlandse Bachvereniging
De Nederlandse Bachvereniging ( The Netherlands Bach Society, The Netherlands Bach Society) is the world's oldest Baroque Ensemble. It owes its existence and its awareness of the annual performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's St. Matthew Passion, which is listed since 1922 in the Grote of Sint- Vituskerk in Naarden. These concerts attract over 12,000 visitors annually. Artistic director and chief conductor at the same time is Jos van Veldhoven.
- 2.1 Program
- 2.2 Artistic director and soloist
- 2.3 Concerts and recordings
- 2.4 Training Project
History
Early years
Officially, the Bachvereniging was launched on September 13, 1921 to life. Johan Schoonderbeek was one of the founders and also the first director and conductor. He worked for the Koninklijke Vereniging oratorio Excelsior in The Hague, where he has conducted the St. Matthew Passion. On Good Friday, 14 April 1922, the first performance of the St. Matthew Passion in the Grote Kerk Naarden under Schoonderbeek took place. The work was not placed in accordance with the practice at that time fully heard. Since then, the performances of a recurring annual tradition were on Good Friday.
After Schoonderbeeks death in 1927 Evert Cornelis was appointed, who was also the conductor of the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra. He opted for the unabridged version of the St. Matthew Passion. He already died in 1931.
Anthon van der Horst
In the same year Anthon van der Horst became his successor. This conductor, who at the same time for many years organist of the solid Grote Kerk in Naarden was, had great influence on the musical life in the Netherlands and beyond. The annual performances of the St. Matthew Passion and the B minor Mass of Bach in Naarden, which he gave up in 1931 with the Bachvereniging shortly before his death in 1965, also attracted a lot of foreign audiences. Van der Horst has tried to make himself more intensely familiar with the nature of music and conducted Bach's masterpieces for example, a facsimile of the autograph to know they are linked directly with the composer. With this approach, van der Horst stood with his Naardener Passion on Good Friday tradition in contrast to the romantic interpretations and still highly abridged Passion interpretations of Willem Mengelberg on Palm Sunday in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Mengelberg continued choirs with 450 singers. Initially, the differences between Mengelberg and Naarden not large, because the same musicians were ( Concertgebouw Orchestra ) and soloists used.
Charles de Wolff
In Naarden 1965 successor to Van der Horst Charles de Wolff year. In this period, the St Matthew Passion was continued by Eugen Jochum at the Concertgebouw, began now but in the Netherlands the historical performance practice to gain ground. After in Amsterdam in the 1970s, a whole new approach with Nikolaus Harnoncourt preferred, were heard even at the Bachvereniging votes to work in Naarden with much smaller occupations and employ a contemporary instruments. This led in 1983 to the fact that De Wolff left the Bachvereniging and worked with the Bachkoor Holland.
Current situation
Program
The Bachvereniging are about 50 concerts a year, preferably with works by Johann Sebastian Bach, his contemporaries and predecessors. The program is different and varies from great Baroque works to lesser-known works from the 17th century. The ensemble performs with performances by various ensembles of sacred and secular choral and orchestral music. Since 1983, the Bachvereniging works with a core group of instrumentalists and singers who all specialize in the repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries.
The Bachvereniging has, inter alia, The following works in their program:
- Bach's Passions, cantatas, masses, motets and orchestral music
- Works of Bach family
- Works of other German- Baroque composers such as Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Schütz, Schein, Scheidt, Buxtehude, Kuhnau, Weckmann, Telemann and knights.
- From other countries: Charpentier, Carissimi, Monteverdi, Mazzocchi, Grandi, nurses, Della Ciaia, Sweelinck, De Koninck, Padbrue, Sancto Josepho and Huygens.
Artistic director and soloist
The artistic direction is in the hands of Jos van Veldhoven, who conducts as chief conductor of about half of the annual projects. For the remaining projects will be invited guest conductors such as Gustav Leonhardt, Paul McCreesh, John Leertouwer, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Frans Brüggen, Iván Fischer and Masaaki Suzuki.
The soloists, who mostly gained international notoriety, have as well as the instrumentalists specializing in historical performance practice of music of the 17th and 18th centuries. The members of the orchestra playing on period instruments or authentic replicas. The cast is flexible and will be adapted depending on the repertoire. De Nederlandse Bachvereniging occurs in Konmzertsälen and historic churches in the Netherlands and abroad.
Concerts and recordings
Most of the concerts of Bachvereniging take place in the Netherlands. In addition, tours are conducted in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Norway, Japan and the United States.
De Nederlandse Bachvereniging and Jos van Veldhoven have CD recordings, among others played by Bach's St. Matthew Passion and the Great Organ Mass with the organist Leo van Doeselaar. In collaboration with the Museum Catharijneconvent published illustrated editions of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, the St. John Passion and the B minor mass.
Training project
The Bachvereniging hopes to awaken in schools interest in Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Several hundred students and teachers take for this purpose the project face to face with the St Matthew Passion in part. With guest lessons, practice sessions, an interactive CD -ROM and access to the site prepare students for the purpose of the project before: the concert of the St. Matthew Passion. This project began in 2003 on a small scale, but has reached within a few years nationwide level with various orchestras and choirs. The project takes place at the end of Lent with concerts throughout the Netherlands its conclusion.
- Ensemble ( Historical Performance Practice )
- Johann Sebastian Bach
- Choir (The Netherlands )
- Bach Choir