Francis Koene

Francis Dirk Jacobus Koene (1922)

Francis Koene (born March 11, 1899 in Weltevreden near Batavia , Dutch East Indies (today: Jakarta , Indonesia ), † January 29, 1935 in Amsterdam ) was a Dutch violinist and concertmaster .

Life

Francis Koene was born as one of three musical sons to a Javanese mother and a Dutch father. He received violin lessons from a Czech violinist at an early age. The family then moved to Holland, where he studied at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag from 1909 to 1913 . From 1917 to 1920 he received violin lessons from Louis Zimmermann in Amsterdam. From 1908 he went on concert tours to India and Europe. In 1920 he played at the legendary international Mahler Festival in Amsterdam. In 1921 he became 2nd concertmaster of the Utrecht Symfonie Orkest .

In 1926 he was the successor of violinist Karl Thomann at the musical band of the Saxon State Theater under Fritz Busch . There he prevailed among 24 (international) applicants for a 1st concert master's position. Since the beginning of his engagement in Dresden, he also gave violin lessons at the orchestral school of the Staatskapelle.

He also appeared as a soloist and chamber musician. With the Staatskapelle he played a. a. Beethoven's Violin Concerto and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor . He also appeared as a soloist with the Czech Philharmonic with Josef Suk's Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra . In 1926 he was involved in the German premiere of Gustav Holst's Double Concerto for 2 Violins and Orchestra . He also appeared in the New Music Paul Aron concert series , where he performed Alban Berg's chamber concerto for piano and violin with 13 winds with the Dresden Philharmonic under Fritz Busch and pianist Paul Aron . As part of a concert by the Dresden Tonkünstlerverein in 1930 he played the violin concerto in G minor by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Sam Franko , with the Saxon State Orchestra . He also played at events of the Richard Wagner Association of German Women, at the Academic Summer Course of the Saxon Teachers' Association and at a Schubert celebration in 1928.

In 1927 he founded the Ensemble Neues Dresdner Trio with the pianist Paul Aron and the cellist Karl Hesse , which gave concerts in Saxony and Holland and, above all, maintained a classical-romantic repertoire (Beethoven, Schubert, etc.). The piano trio also performed works by Maurice Ravel and Ildebrando Pizzetti .

Due to health problems, he ended his engagement in Dresden in 1932 (officially on March 1, 1933). After the seizure of power by the Nazis, he moved back to Holland, where he met the composer in 1934 Henriëtte Bosmans , with whom he also worked, got engaged.

literature

• Erich H. Müller (ed.): German Musicians Lexicon . W. Limpert-Verlag, Dresden 1929.
• Agata Schindler: Francis Koene . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography .
• You helped write Dresden music history. Musicians who were ostracized because of their Jewish origin or because of their rejection of the National Socialist regime . In: Agata Schindler (arr.): File number “undesirable”. The fate of Dresden musicians and the National Socialist persecution of Jews 1933–1945 (= testimonies to life - ways of suffering . H. 9). Foundation of Saxon Memorials in Memory of the Victims of Political Tyranny, Dresden 1999, p. 135 ff.
• The first concertmaster of the Saxon State Orchestra. Francis Koene . In: Agata Schindler: Dresden List. Music city of Dresden and the Nazi persecution of Jews 1933–1945 in words and pictures. A contribution to Dresden's music history . A. Schindler, Dresden 2003, p. 81 ff.

Web links

Commons : Francis Koene  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Literature by and about Francis Koene in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry to Francis Koene in Calliope