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Symphony no. 1 | Recorder concerto
Willem Jeths

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra / Erik Bosgraaf / Karin Strobos

Symphony no. 1 | Recorder concerto

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917269321
Catnr: CC 72693
Release date: 27 November 2015
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Label
Challenge Classics
UPC
0608917269321
Catalogue number
CC 72693
Release date
27 November 2015

"''Want List for David DeBoor Canfield''  "

Fanfare, 01-11-2016
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
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About the album

Willem Jeths (1959) has written a symphony. He already had an opera, three string quartets, eleven solo concertos and a large number of orchestral and chamber music works to his name, but he waited a long time before attempting the most important genre of the orchestral repertoire. In fact it is not a traditional symphony in the classical-romantic sense, but rather a piece with four movements themed around the cycle of life, death and transformation. In retrospect, the first step towards the symphony was the successful premiere of his orchestral work Scale – Le tombeau de Mahler with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at the end of 2010. Even while he was composing it, Jeths felt that Scale needed to be part of a larger whole. In 2012 he wrote the orchestral work Metanoia, in which he linked material from Scale to new ideas. The content of Metanoia connects seamlessly to its predecessor. To surround this dramatic instrumental diptych, Jeths composed two vocal movements of a more philosophical character. In Goethe’s voluminous collection of poems West-östlicher Divan from 1814-1819 he found two poems that revolve around the cyclic dimension of existence. In the opening movement, he incorporated two stanzas from the poem Unbegrenzt [Uncircumscribed] and in the final movement, the entire poem Selige Sehnsucht [Blessed Yearning]. And so the symphony begins and ends with Goethe; not only does it have a cyclic theme, but also a cyclic form. The piece, just under 45 minutes in length, in fact consists of one single build-up of tension in which we see that its musical and its philosophical aspects are all interconnected.

When we consider the art of writing concertos, Willem Jeths is undoubtedly a musician who has the experience that is required. No fewer than thirteen such works have now flowed from his pen.

‘Erik came over to my place a few times to play things through. He also played a number of different recorders to me. These included a sixteenth century renaissance recorder by Silvestro Ganassi. That instrument is more powerful than the more common baroque variant, so I composed my concerto specifically for the Ganassi recorder.’ As the composition progressed, Jeths was increasingly captivated by what he calls the “essence of the instrument”. ‘To me, the sound of the recorder represents innocence and fragile purity. I had to give the soloist enough scope to let him put these qualities across to the best possible effect. My orchestration is therefore deliberately thin. The orchestra plays a subservient part in this piece so that the soloist can emerge in the limelight.'
De wereldpremière van twee grote werken van Willem Jeths
Dit album bevat twee werken van de toonaangevende componist des Vaderlands Willem Jehts: zijn Eerste Symfonie voor orkest en mezzosopraan en zijn Blokfluitconcert. De werken worden uitgevoerd door het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest. De virtuoze Erik Bosgraaf speelt de solopartij in het Blokfluitconcert.

In 2012 componeerde Willem Jehts eindelijk een symfonie. Hij wachtte lang voordat hij zich waagde aan het meest belangrijke orkestrale genre. Het is geen traditionele symfonie, maar meer een vierdelig werk rond het thema ‘de cyclus van leven, dood en transformatie’.

In het midden van de Eerste Symfonie staan twee grondig aangepaste versies van twee eerdere werken voor orkest: Scales en Metanoia. Scales heeft ook een nieuwe titel, in de stijl van Mahler: Wie ein Kondukt. Dit instrumentale tweeluik wordt omlijst door twee vocale delen met een meer filosofisch karakter. Deze delen bevatten twee gedichten van Goethe waarin de cyclus van het bestaan centraal staat: Unbegrenzt en Selige Sehnsucht. De Symfonie begint en eindigt met Goethe. Het werk heeft dus niet alleen een cyclisch thema, maar ook een cyclische vorm.

Willem Jehts heeft ongetwijfeld genoeg ervaring met het componeren van concerten. Hij had echter zijn bedenkingen toen Erik Bosgraaf hem vroeg om een nieuw blokfluitconcert te componeren. Jeths accepteerde de opdracht wel, omdat Bosgraaf een van de beste en meest originele blokfluitspelers ter wereld is. Het leek Jeths fantastisch om een werk speciaal voor hem te componeren. Daarnaast werkten de componist en de solist eerder al nauw met elkaar samen.
Willem Jeths ist einer der führenden, zeitgenössischen Komponisten der Niederlande und so wundert es kaum, dass er nach einer Oper, drei Streichquartetten, elf Solokonzerten und einer großen Anzahl an Orchester- und Kammermusikwerken nun zum ersten "Componist des Vaderlands" ernannt wurde. Ein Preis der Buma Cultuur, der nun regelmäßig an niederländische Komponisten vergeben wird.

Doch eine Gattung fehlte bisher in der Fülle seiner Kompositionen: Die Sinfonie. Seine erste Sinfonie findet sich auf dieser Einspielung und wurde 2012 im Rahmen der Zaterdag Matinee im Concertgebouw Amsterdam uraufgeführt. Es handelt sich hierbei nicht um eine Sinfonie im klassischen Sinne. Jeths Sinfonie Nr. 1 ist ein Werk mit vier Sätzen, die den Zyklus des Lebens (Leben-Tod-Transformation) reflektieren. Dabei beginnt und endet die Sinfonie mit Worten von Goethe gesungen in der Uraufführung von Karin Strobos.

Abgerundet wird das Programm der Einspielung dem dem Blockflötenkonzert, das Jeths für Erik Bosgraaf komponierte. Willem Jeths: "Erik kam mehrere Male zu mir, um einige Sequenzen zu spielen und diese auf verschiedenen Instrumenten auszuprobieren. Darunter auch eine Renaissance-Flöte aus dem 16. Jahrhundert von Silvestro Ganassi. Dieses Instrument ist kraftvoller als vergleichbare Barockflöten und so komponierte ich ein Konzert, das speziell auf dieses Instrument zugeschnitten ist. Für mich repräsentiert der Klang der Blockflöte Unschuldigkeit und fragile Reinheit. Ich musste dem Solisten genug Raum geben, diese Qualitäten mit dem größtmöglichen Effekt zu transportieren. Aus diesem Grund habe ich die Orchestrierung minimalistisch gehalten und ihm eher eine dienstbare Rolle zukommen lassen. Nur so kann der Solist vollkommen im Rampenlicht stehen."

Artist(s)

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra gave its first concert on 7 October 1945, led by its founder and ‘first conductor‘ Albert van Raalte, on Radio “Herrijzend Nederland”. Initially the orchestra spent most of its time in studios working on a large number of recordings for the public broadcasting system. The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic featured prominently in the Saturday Matinee as soon as the series started in 1961, and has continued to give frequent live performances ever since. The celebrated Saturday Matinee has hosted many legendary concerts. Illustrious soloists such as Kathleen Ferrier, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Clara Haskil and Jean-Pierre Rampal have shared the stage with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2004, the three classical orchestral formations of the broadcasting 15 system...
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The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra gave its first concert on 7 October 1945, led by its founder and ‘first conductor‘ Albert van Raalte, on Radio “Herrijzend Nederland”. Initially the orchestra spent most of its time in studios working on a large number of recordings for the public broadcasting system. The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic featured prominently in the Saturday Matinee as soon as the series started in 1961, and has continued to give frequent live performances ever since. The celebrated Saturday Matinee has hosted many legendary concerts. Illustrious soloists such as Kathleen Ferrier, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Clara Haskil and Jean-Pierre Rampal have shared the stage with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2004, the three classical orchestral formations of the broadcasting 15 system were transformed into two: the present Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic. In 2006, these two orchestras, the Netherlands Radio Choir and the Metropole Orchestra joined the Dutch public broadcasting organisation NPO.
The Radio Philharmonic Orchestra has been conducted by great names such as Bernard Haitink, Jean Fournet, Hans Vonk, Sergiu Comissiona and Edo de Waart. Jaap van Zweden was named its chief conductor in September 2005. The orchestra has also worked with numerous famed guest conductors such as Leopold Stokowski, Kirill Kondrashin, Antál Dorati, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur and Valery Gergiev. Soon after its founding, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic found itself foremost in Dutch musical life in the number of performances and the diversity of its repertoire, with a predilection for Dutch and contemporary works in its programming. It has honed another facet of its striking profile with a great many opera concertante performances. The orchestra has an extensive discography, ranging from legendary LPs recorded in the 1970s under such conductors as Leopold Stokowski and Antal Doráti to Jean Fournet’s much-lauded renderings of French repertoire. Under Edo de Waart, not only did it release its legendary Wagner interpretations, but also the complete orchestral works of Rachmaninov. CDs with work by contemporary composers such as Jonathan Harvey, Klas Torstensson, Jan van Vlijmen and Stravinsky have garnered prizes and much acclaim.

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Markus Stenz (conductor)

Markus Stenz is Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (since 2012) and Principal Guest Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from the 2015/2016 onwards.   His previous positions have included most recently General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister and Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra (posts he relinquished in the summer of 2014).  Markus Stenz was Artistic Director of the Montepulciano Festival (1989 – 1995), Principal Conductor of the London Sinfonietta (1994 – 1998) – one of the most renowned ensembles for contemporary music and Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (1998 – 2004).  Trained at the School of Music in Cologne under Volker Wangenheim and at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, Markus Stenz has held the positions of...
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Markus Stenz is Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (since 2012) and Principal Guest Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from the 2015/2016 onwards.
His previous positions have included most recently General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister and Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra (posts he relinquished in the summer of 2014). Markus Stenz was Artistic Director of the Montepulciano Festival (1989 – 1995), Principal Conductor of the London Sinfonietta (1994 – 1998) – one of the most renowned ensembles for contemporary music and Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (1998 – 2004). Trained at the School of Music in Cologne under Volker Wangenheim and at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, Markus Stenz has held the positions of Artistic Director of the Montepulciano Festival (1989 – 1995), Principal Conductor of the London Sinfonietta (1994 – 1998) – one of the most renowned ensembles for contemporary music. As Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (1998 – 2004) Markus Stenz broadened his repertoire and established his career as an international conductor.
He made his debut as an opera conductor at La Fenice in Venice and has since conducted many world premieres and first performances including Henze’s Das Verratene Meer in Berlin, Venus und Adonis at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and L’Upupa at the 2003 Salzburg Festival. Markus Stenz has appeared at many of the world’s major opera houses and international festivals including La Scala in Milan, La Monnaie in Brussels, English National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Stuttgart Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Edinburgh International Festival, the Bregenz Festival (with the world premiere of Solaris by Detlev Glanert in July 2012) and Salzburg Festival.
His notable opera performances in Cologne have included Wagner’s Ring, Lohengrin,Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Parsifal as well as Janacek’s Jenufa and Katya Kabanova. Markus Stenz conducts many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Berlin Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Vienna Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and the Symphony Orchestras of the Bayerische Rundfunk, the HR, the WDR and the NDR. In the United States these have included the Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
His comprehensive discography includes many award-winning productions. His recording of the complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler with the Gürzenich Orchestra (Oehms Classics), for instance, was given an enthusiasic international reception, and was selected among the "Quarterly Critic's Choice" issued by the German Record Critics' Award Association with the recording of Mahler's 5th. The discography was recently enlarged by the addition of recordings of the world premiere of James MacMillan’s St. Luke Passion and the Dutch première of K. A. Hartmnann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus (Challenge Classics) with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest as well as various Schönberg-recordings with the Gürzenich-Orchestra Cologne.
The 2015/2016 season leads Markus Stenz all over the world, from São Paulo to Shanghai. He will again conduct premières and world premières, among others the German premiere of a Cello Concerto by Pascal Dusapin with the cellist Alisa Weilerstein and an orchestra work by Dieter Ammann with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich in June 2016.
Markus Stenz has been awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal North
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Edo de Waart (conductor)

Edo de Waart established a notable conducting career in the last third of the 20th century, becoming known for clear, exciting performances in a wide range of repertory. He came from a musical family, being the son of a choral singer. He studied oboe with Haakon Stotijn and also conducting at the Music Lyceum in Amsterdam. He became co-principal oboe of the Amsterdam Philharmonic in 1961 and associate principal of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1963. Meanwhile, he studied conducting, including a course with Franco Ferrara at Hilversum in 1964. This led to a debut with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in 1964. That same year he won the prestigious Dimitri Mitropoulos Conductors' Competition in New York, which resulted in a year-long appointment as an assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic (1965-66). He became assistant...
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Edo de Waart established a notable conducting career in the last third of the 20th century, becoming known for clear, exciting performances in a wide range of repertory. He came from a musical family, being the son of a choral singer. He studied oboe with Haakon Stotijn and also conducting at the Music Lyceum in Amsterdam. He became co-principal oboe of the Amsterdam Philharmonic in 1961 and associate principal of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1963. Meanwhile, he studied conducting, including a course with Franco Ferrara at Hilversum in 1964. This led to a debut with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in 1964. That same year he won the prestigious Dimitri Mitropoulos Conductors' Competition in New York, which resulted in a year-long appointment as an assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic (1965-66). He became assistant conductor of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw under Bernard Haitink in 1966. He made an impressive recorded debut with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, which he founded in 1967, including classic recordings of Mozart wind music. He was also appointed co-music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic with Jean Fournet, becoming sole music director when Fournet vacated his appointment in 1973. His association with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, which lasted until 1979, became noted for firm, exciting orchestral performances and intriguing choices of repertory. In 1975 he became principal guest conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and was elevated to music director in 1977. Although the orchestra was often capable of fine performances, it was variable and had weaknesses. De Waart lifted its standards, turning it into a consistently fine orchestra. In 1985 he conducted an acclaimed series of the complete Wagner Ring operas in San Francisco.
Over the years he has made many appearances as an opera conductor, including Bayreuth, Covent Garden, the Santa Fe Opera, Paris' Bastille Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. He conducted the first recording of Adams' Nixon in China, which won a Grammy Award in 1988. In 1996 he debuted at the Salzburg Festival with Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
In 1993 he was appointed chief conductor and artistic director of the Sydney (Australia) Symphony Orchestra, and in August 1995 led it on its first European tour in 20 years. In 1996 he took it on its first tours of Japan and Taiwan, and in 1998, on an American tour. He was appointed artistic director of the Netherlands Dutch Radio and Television Organization, and chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. At the beginning of the 1999-2000 season he began his tenure as chief conductor of the Netherlands Opera. In that year de Waart became music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, with his contract extended until 2012. He assumed responsibilities as musical director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2009. An advocate of modern and contemporary music, he has conducted the work of Reich, Torke, Wuorinen, and Britten.

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Composer(s)

Willem Jeths

Willem Jeths' musical language has become gradually less atonal over the years. His most recent compositions even have a prominent ground tone. Densely orchestrated sound blocks rub along one another and overlap in an idiom that might remind one more of Ligeti or Rihm than a typical composer of the Dutch school. It is worth noting that Willem Jeths won two prices at the 1996 International Composition Competition in Vienna, for his violin concert Glenz and for his Piano Concerto. The jury included Wolfgang Rihm, Gerard Grisey, Franco Donatoni, Lothar Knessl and Friedrich Cerha - composers who, like Jeths, are intensely attuned to sound as an aspect of composition. Jeths also won the ''Amsterdamprijs voor de kunst'' for his ouvre...
more

Willem Jeths' musical language has become gradually less atonal over the years. His most recent compositions even have a prominent ground tone. Densely orchestrated sound blocks rub along one another and overlap in an idiom that might remind one more of Ligeti or Rihm than a typical composer of the Dutch school. It is worth noting that Willem Jeths won two prices at the 1996 International Composition Competition in Vienna, for his violin concert Glenz and for his Piano Concerto. The jury included Wolfgang Rihm, Gerard Grisey, Franco Donatoni, Lothar Knessl and Friedrich Cerha - composers who, like Jeths, are intensely attuned to sound as an aspect of composition. Jeths also won the ''Amsterdamprijs voor de kunst'' for his ouvre in 2014. Although a work by Willem Jeths might suggest the existence of a clear-cut plan, forms and structures fade to the background during the composition process. Jeths is driven by spirit and fancy, unfettered by predetermined routes or goals. Because he is so conscious of the basic material, the resulting form, individual and personal, appears to the listener as a taut, consistent concept that unifies the piece. This apparently contradiction, in which aesthetics and working method seem to collide, remains one of the most intriguing aspects, both musically and personally, of Willem Jeths.


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Press

''Want List for David DeBoor Canfield''  
Fanfare, 01-11-2016

article
NRC Handelsblad, 19-6-2016

" [...] If you have any interest in music that is both heart-wrenchingly beautiful and profoundly moving to the soul, you will move mountains to acquire this CD. [...] "
Fanfare Magazine, 02-6-2016

“[...]the vulnerable purity of a child’s spirit.[...]”
music web international, 01-5-2016

"The orchestral palette is layered, sophisticated and rich. Wonderful as colors complement each other, and nowhere getting in each others way."
Luister Magazine, 01-3-2016

''This release is like a pearl. Where also in the recorder concert the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra plays the stars stars of heaven''
Opus Klassiek, 09-1-2016

[...] Notes of wonder that, without diversions, are speaking to the heart. The Radio Philharmonic, the mezzo Karin Strobos and Erik Bosgraaf, who plays the recorder, all give the best. So, a lot. [...]
De Telegraaf, 04-1-2016

"The tension created which the orchestra directed by Markus Stenz and the soloist produce, is electrifying." 
Pizzicato, 04-1-2016

["]..The symphony is dripping with Mahler associations, and in the proper sense of the word...It is entirely 'a marvel of subtle and melancholic balance."
Trouw, 11-12-2015

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Often bought together with..

Various composers
Dance!
Huijnen & Hopman
James MacMillan
Work for chamber orchestra with soloists
James MacMillan / Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic
César Franck, Eugène Ysaÿe
Poème - Works for violin & piano
Lisa Jacobs / Ksenia Kouzmenko
Magnificat - MacMillan series vol. 2
James MacMillan / Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic / Netherlands Radio Choir

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