Willem Kes

Willem Kes ( born February 16, 1856 in Dordrecht, † February 22, 1934 in Munich) was a Dutch conductor, violinist and composer.

Life

Kes studied violin at the universities of Leipzig (with Henryk Wieniawski ), Brussels and Berlin (with Joseph Joachim ). He first played as an orchestral musician and also appeared as a soloist in his home country and in Germany. Already in 1883 he became conductor of the orchestra in his home city of Dordrecht, also of Amsterdam Parkorkest. This orchestra was the direct predecessor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, it played in the park hall which was demolished before the construction of the Concertgebouw. It had contemporary reportedly no high level. Brahms supposed to have said in 1879, lived in Amsterdam nice people but bad musicians.

Kes is known today only as the first chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra from 1888th Here he led a strict discipline, punished musicians who came too late and had detention bad musicians playing with him and practicing their votes. He also demanded silence in the audience during the performance, which was by no means obvious at the time. Kes put his work laid the foundation for the quality of the Concertgebouw Orchestra and became known internationally. He left this post in 1895, therefore, also for the first few years after its establishment, the Scottish Orchestra in Glasgow, which was regarded at that time. However, he moved in 1898 on the Moscow Philharmonic Society. From 1905 to 1926 he was music director of the city of Koblenz.

Kes also left a number of compositions for a wide variety of instruments from the organ solo and symphony orchestra that are now all forgotten. His final resting place is located on the southwest Stahnsdorf.