Pieter Herfst

Herfst as pianist of the Löwenthal Chapel (3rd from left), Berlin 1912

Pieter Herfst (* 1887 in Amsterdam , † 1960 in Enschede ) was a Dutch pianist and conductor .

As a young man, Herfst made a career as a dance musician in the German Empire. He was a member of important Berlin bands and performed in the most famous concert cafés in the Reich capital.

Herfst gained his first experience in Germany between 1905 and 1908 as a member of the "Ensemble Hoedemakers". 1909–1912 he was the pianist of the " Ladislaus Löwenthal Chapel ". With his own orchestra ("Orchester Herfst des Grand-Gala-Café"), Pieter Herfst recorded tango records in 1913. Together with the violinist Willi Rosé-Petösy , he also made recordings with accompanying music for Henny Porten films on behalf of Oskar Messter Film GmbH. From 1916 to 1919 Herfst was hired for Rosé-Petösy's band.

However, the economic situation after the First World War forced Herfst to return to the Netherlands in 1920. After a brief engagement in Max Tak's Amsterdam cinema orchestra , Herfst came to Hengelo (Overijssel) via Arnhem , where he worked as a cinema pianist until 1931, until the local introduction of talkies.

Herfst made a name for himself again in the first half of the 1930s as a member of the "Alfred Klose Chapel" in the Twente / Münsterland border region . In 1935 he founded the " Enschedesch Opera en Operette Gezelschap " (EOOG), a German-Dutch company, and thereby became one of the pioneers of the amateur operetta associations, which are still very popular in the Netherlands today. The beginning of the Second World War destroyed the EOOG and ended his engagements (including in the Schlosshotel “Bellevue” in Bad Bentheim ), but enabled him to pursue a second German career from 1942 to 1944 in the service of the KdF (“Strength through Joy”) and troop support.

The accusation of collaboration with the Nazi state could not be substantiated, but the new beginning after 1945 was difficult for Herfst in his Dutch homeland. From 1948 to 1952 he found employment with the “Twentsch Philharmonisch Orkest” as a drummer and again conducted operetta companies in Enschede, Hengelo and Oldenzaal. Until the beginning of 1960, Pieter Herfst was also active as a dance musician in Gronau and the surrounding area. The last generation of his band members appeared a little later with Udo Lindenberg .

Herfst himself documented the stages of his musician's biography in a diary.

Audio documents

• Tango maxixe (Siegwart Ehrlich) Gramophone Monarch Record 0940 725 (mx. 1288 s) (30 cm)
• La Seducción. Tango mondain (G. Noceti) Gramophone Monarch Record 0940 725 (mx. 1289 s) (30 cm)
• La Marocha. Tango Argentino (E. Saborido) Gramophone Monarch Record 0940 729 (mx. 1291 s) (30 cm)
• La Triguena. Tango Argentino (AG Villoldo) Gramophone Monarch Record 0940 729 (mx. 1292 s) (30 cm)
• Orchestra PD Herfst, conducted by Robert L. Leonard, Berlin. Taken on November 28, 1913

literature

• Haverkate, Jan: Een schnabbel in Auschwitz. Het dubelleven van de Enschedese café pianist Pieter Herfst (A lucrative additional musical income in Auschwitz. The double life of Ensched café pianist Pieter Herfst). In: De Twentsche Courant Tubantia, December 13, 2006, pp. 19, 21.
• Kelly, Alan, (ed.): His Master's Voice / The Voice of His Lord. A Complete Numerical Catalog of German Gramophone Recordings made from 1898 to 1929 in Germany, Austria, and elsewhere by the Gramophone Company Ltd .
• Krijgsman, Willemijn: Pieter Herfst . In: Alfred Hagemann / Elmar Hoff (ed.): Island of dreams. Music in Gronau and Enschede (1895–2005) , Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2006, pp. 79–96.
• Tak, Max: Onder de bomen van het plein . Amsterdam, Brussels 1958, p. 73.
• Lotz, Rainer E: Discography of German Dance Music , Vol. 4, p. 951. ISBN 978-3-9803461-2-2 [3-9803461-2-9]

estate

• Pieter Herfst's estate: Enschede Municipal Office (NL) [1] .