The Original Recordings 1951-1966 by Willem van Otterloo

Willem van Otterloo

The Original Recordings 1951-1966

Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917238327
Catnr: CC 72383
Release date: 04 March 2011
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917238327

Catalogue number
CC 72383

Release date
04 March 2011

"The Label Challenge, which already released a considerably collection of van Otterloo's recordings, now releases a further box with recordings from 1951 to 1966, which shows once again the wide repertoire of the consuctor and his upright handling with the score."

Fono Forum, 01-8-2011

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

Van Otterloo’s recording career began in 1946, while he was still conductor of the Utrechts Stedelijk Orkest. He made twenty recordings for Decca with The Hague Philharmonic, all on fragile 78-rpm black shellac discs, mainly accompanying Dutch opera singers and a single violin soloist, Zoltan Szekely (Glazunov’s Violin Concerto). One exception – much to the displeasure of The Hague Philharmonic’s then-conductor – was Brahms’s Tragic Overture, recorded in 1947. In 1950 Philips introduced the long-playing record, the ‘LP’, and from the outset Van Otterloo was the label’s ‘house conductor’ and The Hague Philharmonic the house orchestra.

Of Philips’ first eight LPs releases, half are with WvO/RO. This collaboration would continue until 1961: he recorded a total of 121 compositions with The Hague Philharmonic, all but one in the spacious acoustics of the Concert-gebouw in Amsterdam. In addition to his own orchestra (RO), Van Otterloo made two recordings with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, two with the Berliner Philharmoniker, seventeen with the Wiener Symphoniker and two with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for Philips Phonographische Industrie. Philips also brought Van Otterloo to Paris in 1953 to record six compositions by Hector Berlioz with the Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux – works that by all rights should have been included in this collection, were it not for the fact that they are substandard recordings, made in a bone-dry hall devoid of all acoustics.

After the contract with Philips ended in 1961, WvO/RO made six recordings for DGG, including two particularly fine performances of Haydn’s Symphony No. 45 and Symphony No. 55 (WvO/RO Box 1, Challenge Classics CC 72142).

Following a lull in his recording career – just ten recordings for the budget label Muzikale Meesterwerken (Concert Hall) – Van Otterloo resumed his recording activities in Australia: six recordings with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for ABC and twentysix with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, issued by WRC, ABC, AMC, RCA and Chandos. In addition to a number of contemporary Australian composers, highlights from this period include Mozart (Gran Partita), Frank Martin (Petite Symphonie Concertante), various works by Debussy and Ravel, and an album with seven works by Beethoven. In July 1978 he recorded Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Two days after the final recording session Van Otterloo was killed in an automobile accident in Melbourne. He was 70 years old. (source: linernotes with cd The Original Recordings 1951-1966 )

Herontdekking van een 's Nederlands beste dirigenten
Dit unieke album bevat originele opnames van de beroemde dirigent Willem van Otterloo's repertoire van 1951 tot 1966. Deze opnames zijn gemaakt met wereldberoemde orkesten zoals het Residentie Orkest, het Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, de Wiener Symfoniker en de Berliner Philharmoniker.

Herontdek een van de beste dirigenten uit de Nederlandse geschiedenis dankzij deze gedigitaliseerde historische opnames. Het album is een initiatief van de Stichting Willem van Otterloo en is mede mogelijk gemaakt door de genereuze bijdrage van Het Kersjes Fonds.

Artist(s)

Willem van Otterloo

Willem van Otterloo was born in 1907. He studied medicine briefly in Utrecht and played saxophone in the student dance orchestra Tower Town Band.  He subsequently studied cello and composition at the Amsterdam Conservatory. One of his first large-scale compositions, the Third Orchestral Suite (1932), won first prize in a competition held by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. When conductor Willem Mengelberg withdrew due to illness, the young composer was invited to conduct the work himself.
In 1932 Van Otterloo joined the cello section of the Utrechts Stedelijk Orkest (Utrecht Municipal Orchestra); in 1933 he became the orchestra’s assistant conductor and in 1937 was promoted to principal conductor. From 1946-1948 he also conducted at De Nederlandse Opera, and from 1947-1949 was conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 1949 he took up the post of chief conductor of the The Hague Philharmonic (Residentie Orkest), at that time a lacklustre ensemble. He is credited with boosting the quality of the orchestra in a remarkably short period of time. Let us not forget what it meant in those days to be a chief conductor: eight months a year with the orchestra, active participation in the orchestra’s organization and structure, and the responsibility for a huge number of concerts – nearly a hundred per year. By January 1961 he had already conducted his 1000th concert with The Hague Philharmonic.
Before long, the RO had become an outstanding ensemble that, in those years, even vied with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The Hague Philharmonic also attracted the world’s top guest conductors: Pierre Monteux, Charles Munch, Eugen Jochum, Carlo Maria Giulini, Hans Rosbaud, Karl Böhm, Rafaël Kubelik, John Barbirolli, Antal Dorati, Günter Wand, Jean Martinon and Leopold Stokowski.
Van Otterloo’s composers of choice in those days were Haydn, Schubert,  Berlioz, Brahms, Franck, Bruckner, Reger, Ravel, Bartók and Stravinsky. But he also conducted works such as Alban Berg’s Lulu Symphony, excerpts from Wozzeck, the Drei Orchesterstücke and the Kammerkonzert; the Fünf Orchesterstücke, Variationen für Orchester, Begleitungsmusik z.e. Lichtspielszene by Schoenberg; Anton Webern’s Fünf and Sechs Orchesterstücke and Variations für Orchester; the Fifth and Sixth Symphony by Karl Amadeus Hartmann; works by Varèse (Arcana), Ives (Three Places in New England) and more than three hundred works by contemporary Dutch composers.
In 1962 he returned to lead the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, in a co-directorship with Jean Fournet. In 1972 he left The Hague Philharmonic, taking up posts with orchestras in Düsseldorf, Tokyo and Melbourne. His last position was as chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Willem van Otterloo was by no means a glamour-seeker or showman. The music itself had the highest priority. His consummate knowledge of each and every score was legendary, and he conducted nearly all the larger works from memory. But above all he was a true orchestral trainer. He worked tirelessly on intonation (he could sing entire chords flawlessly), rhythmic precision and consistency in sound and timbre. He preferred taut, brisk tempos; he demanded orchestral discipline and total control; he had the uncanny ability to maintain a coherent musical line and never lost sight of the structure and form. In these respects Van Otterloo was perfectly suited to the recording studio.

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Herman Krebbers

Cor De Groot

Theo Olof

Feike Asma

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is one of the very best orchestras in the world. Time and time again, critics have lauded its unique sound, which clearly stands out among thousands of others. The RCO’s string section has been called ‘velvety’, the sound of the brass ‘golden’, the timbre of the woodwinds ‘distinctly personal’ and the percussion have an international reputation. While the exceptional acoustics of the Concertgebouw, play an important role in this respect, the influence exerted on the orchestra by its chief conductors, of whom there have been only seven since the orchestra was founded in 1888, is also important. As is that of the musicians themselves. RCO Amsterdam is made up of 120 players hailing from over 20 countries. Despite its...

While the exceptional acoustics of the Concertgebouw, play an important role in this respect, the influence exerted on the orchestra by its chief conductors, of whom there have been only seven since the orchestra was founded in 1888, is also important. As is that of the musicians themselves. RCO Amsterdam is made up of 120 players hailing from over 20 countries. Despite its size, the orchestra actually functions more like a chamber orchestra.This requires both a high individual calibre and a great sense of mutual trust and confidence. The atmosphere onstage, the orchestra’s roots in Amsterdam and the organisational structure

all converge to create exactly the right circumstances for exceptional music-making. The musicians are allowed to shine, yet still share responsibility for the collective. They also share the aim of achieving and delivering the highest level of quality at every performance, an ambition that goes far beyond simply playing all the notes perfectly. This is how magic is made and a concert becomes a truly unforgettable experience.

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Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester

Wiener Symphoniker

Residentie Orkest The Hague

Residentie Orkest The Hague proves that even in the 21st century, symphonic music can still be meaningful to large and diverse audiences. Its reputation as one of the finest orchestras in Europe makes it an appropriate figurehead for The Hague as a cosmopolitan city of justice, peace, and culture. The orchestra performs concert series in the Zuiderstrandtheater in Scheveningen and in addition performs at venues such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam, TivoliVredenburg Utrecht and De Doelen in Rotterdam. Special crossover and innovative productions are also provided at The Hague’s prominent pop venue Paard van Troje throughout the season. The Residentie Orkest performs regularly at various other major concert halls abroad. Tours have brought the orchestra to New York, Boston, Chicago, London and Vienna amongst others and the orchestra also performed in countries like Japan, China, Germany, France and South America. There are also many prolific collaborations with a wide range of partners, including the Dutch National Theatre, Gemeentemuseum and the Dutch National Opera. Recent seasons have seen a much acclaimed production of Messiaen’s rarely performed opera Saint François d’Asisse and Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites.

A rich history Since its first concert in 1904, the Residentie Orkest has developed into one of the prominent symphony orchestras of The Netherlands. Founded by Dr Henri Viotta, who was also its first principal conductor, it quickly attracted composers like Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky, Max Reger, Maurice Ravel, Paul Hindemith and Vincent d’Indy. Guest conductors included Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Leonard Bernstein and Hans Knappertsbusch.

After World War II, Willem van Otterloo was appointed chief conductor. He led the orchestra from 1949 to 1973 and built a strong reputation by combining high-quality performances with adventurous programming. Van Otterloo was succeeded by Jean Martinon, Ferdinand Leitner, Hans Vonk, Evgenii Svetlanov, Jaap van Zweden and Neeme Järvi.

Chief conductor Starting season 2018/2019 Nicholas Collon is chief conductor and artistic advisor of the Residentie Orkest. Richard Egarr will join the orchestra as principal guest conductor in 2019. Until the summer of 2019 Jan Willem de Vriend will act as principal conductor.

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Composer(s)

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. His best-known compositions include nine symphonies, five piano concertos, one violin concerto, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, his great Mass the Missa solemnis, and one opera, Fidelio. Together with Mozart and Haydn, he was part of the First Viennese School. Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire, Beethoven displayed his musical talents at an early age and was taught by his father Johann van Beethoven and by composer and conductor Christian Gottlob Neefe. At the age of 21 he moved to Vienna, where he began studying composition with Joseph Haydn, and gained a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. He lived in Vienna until his death. By his late 20s his hearing began to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost totally deaf. In 1811 he gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose; many of his most admired works come from these last 15 years of his life.

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Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer. Schubert already died before his 32nd birthday, but was extremely prolific during his lifetime. His output consists of over six hundred secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of chamber and piano music. Appreciation of his music while he was alive was limited to a relatively small circle of admirers in Vienna, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades following his death. Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and other 19th-century composers discovered and championed his works. Today, Schubert is ranked among the greatest composers of the late Classical and early Romantic eras and is one of the most frequently performed composers of the early nineteenth century.
It was in the genre of the Lied that Schubert made his most indelible mark. Prior to Schubert's influence, Lieder tended toward a strophic, syllabic treatment of text, evoking the folksong qualities engendered by the stirrings of Romantic nationalism. Schubert expanded the potentialities of the genre like no other composer before.

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Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner was an important innovator of music in his time. He is best known for his operas, which he himself preferred to refer to as musical dramas. He wrote the texts (the libretti) himself and sought to make a Gesamtkunstwerk, the ideal union of text, music and theatre. Over time, this lead to grandiose musical dramas which were performed in a specially built theater for these works in the small town of Bayreuth. Wagner's greatest critic, the philosopher Nietzsche, named his former friend the 'greatest miniaturist of music who in the smallest of space squeezed an endless amount of sense and sweetness'. Nietzsche regarded this as a sympton of decadence, yet it does portray the large variety of treasures which can...

Wagner's greatest critic, the philosopher Nietzsche, named his former friend the "greatest miniaturist of music who in the smallest of space squeezed an endless amount of sense and sweetness". Nietzsche regarded this as a sympton of decadence, yet it does portray the large variety of treasures which can be found in Wagner's music: the mysterious fantasy stories of the love potion of Tristan & Isolde, Wotan's spear, the sea of flames of Brünhilde, the sword of Siegfried... Still the real main character is the orchestra, which shines its light on all the true intentions and feelings of these heroes with great depth.

Both as a composer and as an individual, Wagner remains a subject of controversy and emotional discussions. By many he is hailed as a hero, and by equally many others completely dismissed. But his influence as a composer and musical innovator is undeniable!

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Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer is such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.
Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished.
Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Within his meticulous structures is embedded, however, a highly romantic nature.

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Hector Berlioz

Hector Berlioz is perhaps the most romantic of the romantics. His continuously changing moods split the traditional symphony orchestra into countless divisions, and his idealistic longing faded the borders between symphony, opera and oratoria. No wonder that this revolutionary expression gained little appreciation in its own time. The public of that age had barely overcome Beethoven's innovations. Reciprocally, Berlioz resented the audience and its conventions of the prevailing concert practice. In one of his writings, Berlioz dreamed of a Utopian city called Euphonia, in which commerce was banned and the arts stood at the centre of civilisation. It wasn't until after his death that Berlioz gained the recognition he deserves. The most music lovers will know Berlioz from his Symphonie Fantastique,...

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Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school. Weber's operas Der Freischütz, Euryanthe and Oberon greatly influenced the development of the Romantische Oper (Romantic opera) in Germany. Der Freischütz came to be regarded as the first German 'nationalist' opera, Euryanthe developed the Leitmotif technique to an unprecedented degree, while Oberon may have influenced Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream and, at the same time, revealed Weber's lifelong interest in the music of non-Western cultures. This interest was first manifested in Weber's incidental music for Schiller's translation of Gozzi's Turandot, for which he used a Chinese melody, making him the first Western composer to use an...

Carl Maria von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school.
Weber's operas Der Freischütz, Euryanthe and Oberon greatly influenced the development of the Romantische Oper (Romantic opera) in Germany. Der Freischütz came to be regarded as the first German "nationalist" opera, Euryanthe developed the Leitmotif technique to an unprecedented degree, while Oberon may have influenced Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream and, at the same time, revealed Weber's lifelong interest in the music of non-Western cultures. This interest was first manifested in Weber's incidental music for Schiller's translation of Gozzi's Turandot, for which he used a Chinese melody, making him the first Western composer to use an Asian tune that was not of the pseudo-Turkish kind popularised by Mozart and others.

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César Franck

César Franck was simultaneously a child prodigy and a late bloomer. His parents quickly discovered his enormous talent, but they were mostly interested in the money and fame that he might generate. Because of this, he was presented as a piano virtuoso, without a focus on composition. Unfortunately, his virtuoso career was less promising then they had hoped, and he started earning his money more as a teacher and organist. Composing stayed in the background, but in the mean time he did get some notable students, such as Henri Duparc. After a while, a sort of "Franck school" of students arose, albeit against his will, who affectionately called him ‘Pater seraphicus’. It was not until he was 50 before he started to receive some acclaim as a composer, and from his 52nd he started a very prolific period, lasting until his death at the age of 68.
Nowadays, Franck is mostly known for his instrumental music, peaking at the famous Violin Sonata in A. Besides this work,, his small collection of organ works was particularly influential.

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Giacomo Meyerbeer

Giacomo Meyerbeer was a German opera composer of Jewish birth who has been described as perhaps the most successful stage composer of the nineteenth century. With his 1831 opera Robert le diable and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera 'decisive character'. Meyerbeer's grand opera style was achieved by his merging of German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. These were employed in the context of sensational and melodramatic libretti created by Eugène Scribe and were enhanced by the up-to-date theatre technology of the Paris Opéra. They set a standard which helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth century. Apart from around 50 songs, Meyerbeer wrote little except for the stage. The critical assaults of...

Giacomo Meyerbeer was a German opera composer of Jewish birth who has been described as perhaps the most successful stage composer of the nineteenth century. With his 1831 opera Robert le diable and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera 'decisive character'. Meyerbeer's grand opera style was achieved by his merging of German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. These were employed in the context of sensational and melodramatic libretti created by Eugène Scribe and were enhanced by the up-to-date theatre technology of the Paris Opéra. They set a standard which helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth century.
Apart from around 50 songs, Meyerbeer wrote little except for the stage. The critical assaults of Wagner and his supporters, especially after his death, led to a decline in the popularity of his works; his operas were suppressed by the Nazi regime in Germany, and were neglected by opera houses through most of the twentieth century. In the 21st century, however, the composer's major French grand operas have begun to reappear in the repertory of numerous European opera houses.

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Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, conductor, pianist and organist. He was a musical prodigy, writing his first pieces of music at the age of four and making his concert debut at the age of ten. During this concert he astonished the audience by playing one of the 32 piano sonatas of Beethoven at its request. After his studying at the Conservatory of Paris he followed a career as a church organist at Saint-Merri and later La Madeleine in Paris. He was also a successful freelance composer and pianist in France and abroad.
Saint-Saëns initially helped to introduce German composers such as Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner in France. However, from 1870 onwards anti-German sentiments began to arise in France as a result of the Franco-Prussian War, which enhanced support for the idea of a pro-French musical society. In 1871 Saint-Saëns consequently founded the Société Nationale de Musique together with Romain Bussine, that was devoted to the promotion of French music and organised concerts on which young composers could perform their works.
Saint-Saëns was a keen traveler, and made 179 trips to 27 different countries during his life. He favoured Algeria and Egypt, were he gained inspiration for compositions such as the Suite Algérienne and the Fifth Piano Concerto, also known as The Egyptian.
Saint-Saëns' best-known works include the First Cello Concerto, Third Symphony, the opera Samson et Dalila, Danse Macabre and Le carnaval des animaux, a humorous suite in which various animals are musically portrayed. However, he never wanted the last work to be performed, since it was contrary to his image as a serious composer.

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Bedřich Smetana

Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who is mostly known from his opera Prodaná nevěsta (The Bartered Bride) and his cycle of six symphonic poems Má Vlast (My Homeland). The latter includes the renowned Vltava, which describes the river running through Prague and ends up in river Elbe. It is Smetana's best known and internationally most popular orchestral piece. Together with Antonín Dvořák and Leoš Janáček, Smetana is one of the most influential composers from the Czech Republic.

Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who is mostly known from his opera Prodaná nevěsta (The Bartered Bride) and his cycle of six symphonic poems Má Vlast (My Homeland). The latter includes the renowned Vltava, which describes the river running through Prague and ends up in river Elbe. It is Smetana's best known and internationally most popular orchestral piece. Together with Antonín Dvořák and Leoš Janáček, Smetana is one of the most influential composers from the Czech Republic.

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Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov was a Russian pianist, composer, and conductor of the late-Romantic period, some of whose works are among the most popular in the classical repertoire.
Born into a musical family, Rachmaninov took up the piano at age four. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1892 and had composed several piano and orchestral pieces by this time. In 1897, following the critical reaction to his Symphony No. 1, Rachmaninoff entered a four-year depression and composed little until successful therapy allowed him to complete his enthusiastically received Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1901. After the Russian Revolution, Rachmaninov and his family left Russia and resided in the United States, first in New York City. Demanding piano concert tour schedules caused his output as composer to slow tremendously; between 1918 and 1943, he completed just six compositions, including Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Symphony No. 3, and Symphonic Dances. In 1942, Rachmaninov moved to Beverly Hills, California. One month before his death from advanced melanoma, Rachmaninov acquired American citizenship.
Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev, Mussorgsky, and other Russian composers gave way to a personal style notable for its song-like melodicism, expressiveness and his use of rich orchestral colors.[3] The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninov's compositional output, and through his own skills as a performer he explored the expressive possibilities of the instrument.

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Press

The Label Challenge, which already released a considerably collection of van Otterloo's recordings, now releases a further box with recordings from 1951 to 1966, which shows once again the wide repertoire of the consuctor and his upright handling with the score.
Fono Forum, 01-8-2011