Nederlandse Bachvereniging

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Nederlandse Bachvereniging
Seat: NetherlandsNetherlands Naarden
Founding: September 13, 1921
Genus: Orchestra and choir
Founder: Johan Schoonderbeek
Head : Shunske Sato
Voices : SATB
Website : www.bachvereniging.nl

The Nederlandse Bachvereniging ("Dutch Bach Society"; English Netherlands Bach Society ) is the world's oldest baroque orchestra specializing in the historical performance of baroque music . It owes its existence and its fame to the performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's St. Matthew Passion , which have taken place annually since 1922 in the Grote Kerk in Naarden and now also in eight other locations in the Netherlands (as of 2019). These concerts attract over 12,000 visitors annually. Shunske Sato has been the artistic director since June 2018 .

In the run-up to its 100th anniversary in 2021, the Nederlandse Bachvereniging is currently recording the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach under the title All of Bach and is continuously publishing new videos of this complete performance.

Surname

Formerly the name of the society was De Nederlandse Bachvereniging ("The Dutch Bach Society") or English The Netherlands Bach Society . In the course of 2013, the company changed the information on its website to the current name Nederlandse Bachvereniging and also introduced a new logo to match.

The name Nederlandse Bachvereniging is actually the usual abbreviation for a foundation with the full name Stichting de Nederlandse Bachvereniging (literally: "Foundation of the Dutch Bach Association"). The foundation has been recognized as a non-profit organization since 2008 and has had the official status of Culturelle Instelling (“cultural institution”) since 2012 .

The foundation employs a permanent ensemble of instrumental musicians and singers. The name Nederlandse Bachvereniging is mostly used with reference to these musicians. Depending on whether the choir and / or the baroque orchestra is meant, more precise names for the musicians' ensemble can often be found on CDs or in concert programs, such as Koor van de Nederlandse Bachvereniging ("Choir of the Dutch Bach Society"), Collegium musicum van de Nederlandse Bachvereniging or Koor & Barokorkest van de Nederlandse Bachvereniging .

story

Early years

The Bachvereniging was officially launched on September 13, 1921. This makes it one of the oldest ensembles for historical performance practice . Johan Schoonderbeek was one of the founders and at the same time the first director and conductor. He worked for the Koninklijke Oratorium Vereniging Excelsior in The Hague , where he already conducted the St. Matthew Passion . On Good Friday , April 14, 1922, the first performance of the St. Matthew Passion took place in the Grote Kerk of Naarden under Schoonderbeek. In accordance with the practice at the time, the work was brought to the audience in an abridged version. Since then, Good Friday performances have become an annual tradition.

After Schoonderbeek's death in 1927, Evert Cornelis was appointed director, who was also the conductor of the Utrecht Symfonie Orkest . He opted for the unabridged version of the St. Matthew Passion . He died in 1931.

Anthon van der Horst

In the same year Anthon van der Horst succeeded him. This conductor, who was also the permanent organist of the Grote Kerk in Naarden for many years , had a great influence on musical life in the Netherlands and beyond. The annual performances of the St. Matthew Passion and the B minor Mass by Bach in Naarden, which he gave with the Bach Association from 1931 until shortly before his death in 1965 , also attracted a large number of foreign audiences. Van der Horst endeavored to become more and more familiar with the essence of music and conducted Bach's masterpieces, for example from a facsimile of the autograph, in order to know that he was directly connected to the composer. With this approach, van der Horst, with his Naarden Passion tradition on Good Friday, stood in contrast to the romantically interpreted and still greatly abbreviated Passion interpretations by Willem Mengelberg on Palm Sunday in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw . Mengelberg used choirs with 450 singers. Initially, the differences between Mengelberg and Naarden were not great because the same musicians ( Concertgebouw orchestra ) and soloists were used.

Charles de Wolff

In 1965 , Charles de Wolff succeeded Van der Horst in Naarden . During this period, the St. Matthew Passion was continued in the Concertgebouw by Eugen Jochum , but in the meantime historical performance practice began to gain ground in the Netherlands . After a completely new approach with Nikolaus Harnoncourt was preferred in Amsterdam in the 1970s, voices were also raised at the Bachvereniging to work with much smaller ensembles in Naarden and to use contemporary instruments. This led to De Wolff leaving the Bachvereniging in 1983 and working with Bachkoor Holland .

Jos van Veldhoven in 2008

Jos van Veldhoven

In 1983, the artistic direction was transferred to Jos van Veldhoven , who as chief conductor conducted around half of the annual projects. Guest conductors were invited for the other projects, such as Gustav Leonhardt , Paul McCreesh , Johannes Leertouwer , Philippe Herreweghe , René Jacobs , Frans Brüggen , Iván Fischer and Masaaki Suzuki . Jos van Veldhoven remained the head of the Bach Association for 35 years . When he conducted the St. Matthew Passion again on Good Friday 2018 in the Grote Kerk in Naarden, Dutch television was there and broadcast the recording on the same day.

Shunske Sato

In 2014 the baroque violinist Shunske Sato was appointed concertmaster . As the successor to Jos van Veldhoven, he took over the artistic direction in June 2018. The performances of the St. Matthew Passion in 2019 were conducted by Philippe Herreweghe .

ensemble

The Bachvereniging has been working with a core group of instrumentalists and singers since 1983, all of whom specialize in the repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries and the historical performance practice of this era. The members of the orchestra play on original instruments or authentic replicas. With the baroque orchestra and the choir, performances of sacred and secular choral and orchestral music are performed in different formations. The line-up is flexible and is adapted to the repertoire.

The Bachvereniging regularly invites internationally known vocal soloists to perform the great vocal works. For example, when Bach's B minor Mass was recorded in December 2016, soloists were: Hana Blažíková from the Czech Republic and Anna Reinhold from France (soprano), David Erler from Germany (alto) and the two Englishmen Thomas Hobbs (tenor) and Peter Harvey (bass).

activities

Concerts and tours

The Grote Kerk in Naarden, a traditional venue for the St. Matthew Passion

The Nederlandse Bachvereniging performs in concert halls and historic churches across the Netherlands and abroad. Around 50 concerts a year take place in the Netherlands. In addition, tours are carried out abroad: in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Norway, Japan and the United States.

The Bachvereniging preferably performs works by Johann Sebastian Bach, his contemporaries and forerunners. The program varies from large baroque works to lesser-known works from the 17th century. The Bachvereniging has the following works in its program:

The traditional highlight of the season is the performance of the St. Matthew Passion on Good Friday in the Grote Kerk in Naarden . This performance is now part of an annual "Matthew Tour" in the Netherlands. In 2019, the St. Matthew Passion was performed a total of 14 times between April 4 and 20: first in Utrecht , then in Groningen , Eindhoven , Tilburg , again in Utrecht, Rotterdam , Breda , Aardenburg , Naarden and Amsterdam , and finally four times in Naarden.

Recordings

The Nederlandse Bachvereniging and Jos van Veldhoven have CD recordings, among others. recorded by Bach's St. Matthew Passion and the Great Organ Mass with the organist Leo van Doeselaar . Illustrated editions of Bach's Christmas Oratorio , the St. John Passion and the Mass in B minor have been published in collaboration with the Museum Catharijneconvent .

"All of Bach"

The Nederlandse Bachvereniging will be 100 years old in 2021 . In the run-up to this anniversary, she has been recording all of Johann Sebastian Bach's works in image and sound with her own musicians and guest musicians since September 2013. The motto of this monumental project is All of Bach .

During the recordings, high-quality HD videos are made, which are continuously published on the project's website and are available to the general public for free use. The first videos appeared on the website in May 2014. Then a new work was put online as a video recording every week; In September 2018, the frequency was switched to a bi-weekly frequency. At the beginning of 2019 there were already recordings of more than 250 works, 233 of which were available on the website. A menu and an additional search field enable a targeted search for specific works, for example based on the characteristics of instrument or voice, work group, BWV number or the name of a participating musician. Each video is accompanied by detailed information about the work in question, the musicians and the recording.

Training project

The Bachvereniging wants to arouse interest in schools in Bach's St. Matthew Passion . For this purpose, a few hundred students and teachers take part in the “Eye to Eye with the St. Matthew Passion” project. With guest lessons, rehearsals, an interactive CD-ROM and their own website, the students prepare for the goal of the project: attending a concert for the St. Matthew Passion . This project started on a small scale in 2003, and within a few years has reached national level with various orchestras and choirs. The project comes to an end at the end of the Passion period with concerts all over the Netherlands.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b St. Matthew Passion bachvereniging.nl (Dutch)
  2. ↑ See these archived website versions: In April 2013 , De Nederlandse Bachvereniging was specified under Kantoor (office) , and in November 2013 , Nederlandse Bachvereniging - but still with the logo that reads De Nederlandse Bachvereniging (top right). In December 2013 , the new logo with the name Nederlandse Bachvereniging was used (top left, partially covered by the wayback bar, which can be clicked away).
  3. ↑ ANBI bachvereniging.nl, see there Officiële naam (official name) and Publiek bekende naam (commonly known name). - ANBI (Dutch abbreviation for algemeen nut beogende instelling ) is the name of a non-profit organization.
  4. ↑ Annual report 2017 of the Stichting de Nederlandse Bachvereniging (PDF; Dutch) see p. 1 under Fiscale positie .
  5. ↑ Examples: Koor van de Nederlandse Bachvereniging , Collegium musicum van de Nederlandse Bachvereniging , Koor & Barokorkest van de Nederlandse Bachvereniging on CD covers at discogs.com
  6. ↑ a b Playing the Numbers When Putting Voice to Bach The New York Times, April 15, 2007.
  7. ↑ a b Bachvereniging kiest avontuur en klasse nrc.nl (Dutch), accessed on February 26, 2018.
  8. ↑ a b c d e De Nederlandse Bachvereniging muziekencyclopedie.nl (Dutch)
  9. ↑ Anthon van der Horst at Bach Cantatas (English)
  10. ↑ Charles de Wolff at Bach Cantatas (English)
  11. ↑ De Nederlandse Bachvereniging at Bach Cantatas (English)
  12. ↑ a b Jos van Veldhoven neemt afscheid bij de Nederlandse Bachvereniging volkskrant.nl, June 17, 2018.
  13. ↑ Matthäus-Passion, vrijdag 30 maart 2018 Video of the station NTR .
  14. ↑ Shunske Sato nieuwe artistiek, unfortunately, Nederlandse Bachvereniging Reformatorisch Dagblad, May 11, 2017.
  15. ↑ Shunske Sato bachvereniging.nl (Dutch)
  16. ↑ Ensemble bachvereniging.nl
  17. ↑ Mass in B minor allofbach.com, see Cast & Crew .
  18. ↑ Over ons bachvereniging.nl (Dutch)
  19. ^ Museum Catharijneconvent, Annual Report 2007, p. 11.
  20. ↑ a b About All of Bach allofbach.com
  21. ↑ a b All of Bach: De online schatkamer van de Nederlandse Bachvereniging bachvereniging.nl
  22. ↑ a b All works up to now allofbach.com, accessed on January 8, 2019.
  23. ↑ J.-P. Maaijwee: Oog in oog met de Matthew Passion. In: Art Zone. Tijdschrift voor kunst en cultuur in het onderwijsjaar. Volume 8, No. 9, 2009, pp. 25–26.
  24. ↑ Education & talent . bachvereniging.nl (Dutch)