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Dutch Airlines
Various composers

Dirk Luymes

Dutch Airlines

Price: € 12.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917216622
Catnr: CC 72166
Release date: 05 March 2007
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Label
Challenge Classics
UPC
0608917216622
Catalogue number
CC 72166
Release date
05 March 2007
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
NL

About the album

This CD features the harmonium with works, written for the instrument by Dutch composers of all sorts and from diverse periods.Performers and restorers are removing the mothballs from instruments and rediscovering their individual qualities. Partly at request of Luijmes, numerous Dutch composers took up their pen to restore the harmonium to honour, with surprising and splendid results.

They literally and figuratively breathe new life into the instrument that had a bad reputation among professional musicians in the Netherlands. And no wonder: in most cases the harmonium functioned as nothing more than a pseudo-organ, thus earning nicknames such as 'psalm pump', 'Hallelujah commode' and 'circular saw of the faith'.

The fact that many 'serious' composers ignored the instrument may also have had something to do with the nature of the instruments that inundated the Dutch market. These were notably suction harmoniums: instruments with an inwardly directed sound, often possessing limited expressive potential.

Dirk Luijmes has opted for two French compression harmoniums (Victor Mustel,1878 and 1901), primarily because these instruments have great dynamic and expressive possibilities.

With 'Dutch airlines' - he makes it apparent that the harmonium's negative image is in fact salvageable in the case of Dutch music, and not only by enlisting the aid of contemporary composers.
Het eerherstel van het harmonium
Dit album bevat werken voor harmonium, geschreven door Nederlandse componisten uit diverse perioden, en uitgevoerd door Dirk Luijmes. Luijmes heeft voor de opnames twee Franse compressieharmoniums gekozen, omdat deze instrumenten goede dynamische en expressieve mogelijkheden hebben.

Het harmonium had vroeger een slechte naam onder professionele musici. Geen wonder: het fungeerde in de meeste gevallen alleen als pseudo-orgel, en kreeg dan ook bijnamen als 'psalmenpomp' en 'cirkelzaag des geloofs'. Het feit dat veel serieuze componisten het instrument negeerden had misschien ook te maken met de aard van de instrumenten die de Nederlandse markt overspoelden. Dit waren met name zuigwindharmoniums, instrumenten met een naar binnen gerichte klank met vaak bescheiden expressiemogelijkheden.

Nu halen musici en restaurateurs de mottenballen van het instrument, en ontdekken ze zijn individuele kwaliteiten. Talloze Nederlandse componisten pakten hun pen op, deels op verzoek van Luijmes, en herstelden het harmonium in zijn eer, met schitterende en verrassende resultaten. De componisten blazen hiermee letterlijk en figuurlijk nieuw leven in dit instrument.

Het album Dutch Airlines maakt duidelijk dat de harmonium van zijn negatieve imago gered kan worden binnen de Nederlandse muziek, en niet alleen door de hulp in te roepen van hedendaagse componisten.

Artist(s)

Dirk Luijmes

Having studied at the Arnhem Conservatorium and at Utrecht’sState University, Dirk Luijmes is now active in many different fields of the music world. He has won various national and international organ prizes and, being one of the world’s few professional harmonium players, gives solo performances both at home and abroad, including appearances in: Warsaw (Warschauer Herbst), Vienna (Musikverein), Germany, England and France with the likes of the RIAS Kammerchor, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, the Skampa Kwartet, Sinfonietta Amsterdam and Oxalys. More than twenty-five composers have written works for him, including Willem Breuker, Gilius van Bergeijk and Guus Janssen. In addition to being a performer (of various historical keyboard instruments) he is a publicist, musicologist, programme  maker and the artistic...
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Having studied at the Arnhem Conservatorium and at Utrecht’sState University, Dirk Luijmes is now active in many different fields of the music world. He has won various national and international organ prizes and, being one of the world’s few professional harmonium players, gives solo performances both at home and abroad, including appearances in: Warsaw (Warschauer Herbst), Vienna (Musikverein), Germany, England and France with the likes of the RIAS Kammerchor, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, the Skampa Kwartet, Sinfonietta Amsterdam and Oxalys. More than twenty-five composers have written works for him, including Willem Breuker, Gilius van Bergeijk and Guus Janssen. In addition to being a performer (of various historical keyboard instruments) he is a publicist, musicologist, programme maker and the artistic director of Stichting Longen & Tongen (“the Lungs an To Luijmes has made a number of CDs, including: a recording of a Froberger suite he discovered himself; old and new works for harmonium solo (BVHaast); and a recording of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle (Challenge Classics CC72157) with Leo van Doeselaar and Wieneke Jordans.
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Francine van der Heijden

Francine van der Heijden was trained as a solo singer at conservatoires in Maastricht, the Hague and London. She then went on to study at the Britten Pears School in Aldeburgh and at the International Opera Centre in the Netherlands, participating in various master classes. She is currently being coached by Meinard Kraak and Peter Nilson. Francine has contributed to a respectable number of CDs and television recordings and has  collaborated with conductors such as Ton Koopman, Jos van Veldhoven, Oleg Caetani, Peter Eötvös and Jed Wentz. She performs both at home and abroad as a lied and opera singer.
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Francine van der Heijden was trained as a solo singer at conservatoires in Maastricht, the Hague and London.
She then went on to study at the Britten Pears School in Aldeburgh and at the International Opera Centre in the Netherlands, participating in various master classes. She is currently being coached by Meinard Kraak and Peter Nilson. Francine has contributed to a respectable number of CDs and television recordings and has collaborated with conductors such as Ton Koopman, Jos van Veldhoven, Oleg Caetani, Peter Eötvös and Jed Wentz. She performs both at home and abroad as a lied and opera singer.

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Rémy Baudet

Rémy Baudet studied history at the University of Groningen and the violin at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam (under Mark Lubotski), where he was awarded the Prix d’Excellence. He is the concert master of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, the Gelders Orkest and of Musica Amphion with whom he has recorded many CDs over the past  few years. In addition he founded the Le Zéphyre and is a member of the Van Swieten Society. Baudet has played with – and soloed with – many leading orchestras in the Netherlands and abroad. He has also written a thesis about the development of violin playing between 1780 and 1880, taught at various conservatoires and been a history of art teacher for a number of...
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Rémy Baudet studied history at the University of Groningen and the violin at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam (under Mark Lubotski), where he was awarded the Prix d’Excellence. He is the concert master of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, the Gelders Orkest and of Musica Amphion with whom he has recorded many CDs over the past few years. In addition he founded the Le Zéphyre and is a member of the Van Swieten Society. Baudet has played with – and soloed with – many leading orchestras in the Netherlands and abroad. He has also written a thesis about the development of violin playing between 1780 and 1880, taught at various conservatoires and been a history of art teacher for a number of years.
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Composer(s)

Louis Andriessen

Louis Andriessen undoubtedly belongs to the most influential Dutch composers of his generation. He studied under Kees van Baaren en Luciano Berio and formed together with Peter Schat and Reinbert de Leeuw a composers collective who together composed the famous operia Reconstruction. As a member of de Notenkrakers (a Dutch political movement) he was rebelling against the established musical order and he became an advocate for progressive music. Andriessen's true breakthrough came with his large-scaled work De Staat (The Republic) from 1976. Here you can influences of Stravinsky, jazz and American minimalism in favour of his earlier neoclassicism and serialism. De Staat was soon followed by monumental works such as Mausoleum (1979), De Tijd (1981) en De Snelheid (1983) which all culminated in his magnum opus De Materie (1989). In this work, all...
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Louis Andriessen undoubtedly belongs to the most influential Dutch composers of his generation. He studied under Kees van Baaren en Luciano Berio and formed together with Peter Schat and Reinbert de Leeuw a composers collective who together composed the famous operia Reconstruction. As a member of de Notenkrakers (a Dutch political movement) he was rebelling against the established musical order and he became an advocate for progressive music. Andriessen's true breakthrough came with his large-scaled work De Staat (The Republic) from 1976. Here you can influences of Stravinsky, jazz and American minimalism in favour of his earlier neoclassicism and serialism. De Staat was soon followed by monumental works such as Mausoleum (1979), De Tijd (1981) en De Snelheid (1983) which all culminated in his magnum opus De Materie (1989). In this work, all of Andriessen's characteristic elements come together.

As a professor in composition at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, he is regarded as the founder of the so-called The Hague school, of which the musical elements can be described as loud, aggressive, and stripped of every neo-romantic sentiment, just like Andriessen's music.


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Chiel Meijering

Chiel Meijering was born in Amsterdam. He studied composition with Ton de Leeuw, percussion under Jan Labordus and Jan Pustjens and piano at the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music. He is one of the most performed Dutch composers. Meijering has an enormous output of works. He has written over 900 compositions so far, for almost any instrumentation imaginable. A main focus has been on various small ensemble settings. Many of these pieces are performed regularly in the Netherlands and abroad and were written for renowned chamber music ensembles, such as the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet, the Mondriaan String Quartet, the Matangi String Quartet, the Sinfonietta Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Guitar Trio, the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble or German newcomer ensemble Spark....
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Chiel Meijering was born in Amsterdam. He studied composition with Ton de Leeuw, percussion under Jan Labordus and Jan Pustjens and piano at the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music. He is one of the most performed Dutch composers.
Meijering has an enormous output of works. He has written over 900 compositions so far, for almost any instrumentation imaginable. A main focus has been on various small ensemble settings. Many of these pieces are performed regularly in the Netherlands and abroad and were written for renowned chamber music ensembles, such as the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet, the Mondriaan String Quartet, the Matangi String Quartet, the Sinfonietta Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Guitar Trio, the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble or German newcomer ensemble Spark. Since the 2000s, Meijering has developed a growing interest into opera. The overwhelming success of his Alzheimer Opera, which was premiered in January 2006 at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ marked his breakthrough with a larger theater audience. "Alzheimer" was quickly followed by several productions, such as "Styx", "De keizer is knetter", "Grenspost Zinnenwald" and "Blauwbaard". Meijering is currently working on a new opera for the Holland Opera Company, to be performed in 2011. Furthermore he has received a commission by the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble in cooperation with Concertgebouw Amsterdam for a short opera for children, which will be performed in front of about 5000 children within four days. Some of the songs in the opera will also be sung by the children as part of an educational project.
A very strong characteristic of Meijering's works is a large variety of styles. Without any difficulty, he seems to move between different musical worlds and genres and thus creates a different texture for each of his works. Some of them remind of pop, jazz or world music, others are written in a classical tradition or show avant-garde elements. Meijering is driven by spontaneity. All kinds of emotions and experiences that arise during a day, may directly flow into the composition he is working on. Sometimes he even uses accidents as a method and throws the dice for creating clusters. Meijerings works always have programmatic titles, sometimes funny or provocative or fooling around with toilet or sex humour. Examples include "I Hate Mozart" (for flute, alto saxophone, harp and violin), "I've Never Seen a Straight Banana" (for alto saxophone, marimba, piano, harp, and violin), "If the Camels Don't Get You, the Fatimas Must!" (for solo violin), "When the Cock Crowed His Warning" (for two recorders, viola, cello and piano), "GangBang" (for large orchestra and electric guitar) and "Background-Music for Non-Entertainment Use in Order to Cover Unwanted Noise" (for four saxophones). This philosophy goes back to the 1970s, when he tried to separate himself from the all to pragmatic and dry practice of most of his colleaugues, naming their pieces "Sonata No. 33" or "Symphonie No. 15". Now that he has reached the middle of his fifties, Meijering's titles - as well as his music - are experiencing a shift to the more romantic and poetic side: "NightbeastCry" (for toy piano), "The house with paper walls" (for viola and harp) or "Blue shadows flower into light" (for saxophone orchestra and two pianos).
Meijering has found a large public not only in the Netherlands, but also on international stages. His music shows high artistry and still remains catchy and accessible for a broad audience. This is a very rare combination in the contemporary music scene and has helped Meijering to establish himself not only within the serious music circle, but also and foremost in the international classical music scene. Even Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands outet herself as a huge lover of Meijering's music, when she ordered one of his compositions for a festive concert on the occasion of her 60th birthday. Without any doubt, Meijering can be described as one of the most popular and famous voices of contemporary Dutch music.

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Alphons Diepenbrock

Alphons Diepenbrock was the first Dutch composer after Sweelinck with an international allure. The early polyphonic sacred music (Palestrina, Sweelinck) formed an important source of inspiration for Diepenbrock. Diepenbrock knew how to combine this abstract linear music with the sensual harmonies of Wagner (and later Debussy). Composers such as Mahler, Strauss and Schoenberg appreciated Diepenbrock's music.  At the age of 27, Diepenbrock received his doctorate in Amsterdam with a thesis written in Latin about Seneca. For a period of six years he taught Greek and Latin in Den Bosch. He returned to Amsterdam however to fully dedicate himself to music, even though he was a completely self-taught composer. He saw literature and the catholic church as his inspiration. Diepenbrock befriended many...
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Alphons Diepenbrock was the first Dutch composer after Sweelinck with an international allure. The early polyphonic sacred music (Palestrina, Sweelinck) formed an important source of inspiration for Diepenbrock. Diepenbrock knew how to combine this abstract linear music with the sensual harmonies of Wagner (and later Debussy). Composers such as Mahler, Strauss and Schoenberg appreciated Diepenbrock's music. At the age of 27, Diepenbrock received his doctorate in Amsterdam with a thesis written in Latin about Seneca. For a period of six years he taught Greek and Latin in Den Bosch. He returned to Amsterdam however to fully dedicate himself to music, even though he was a completely self-taught composer. He saw literature and the catholic church as his inspiration. Diepenbrock befriended many writers and artists, such as Goethe, Nietzsche, Hölderlin and Verlaine.
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