2012 is the 150th anniversary of Diepenbrock’s birth in Amsterdam. Also, it is 100 years since he was acclaimed as the most important Dutch composer since Sweelinck. This definitive collection includes his many vocal compositions as well as those for stage, orchestra and Symphonic Songs.
It is good to welcome this set of the extravagantly brooding orchestral music of the Dutch composer Alphons Diepenbrock.
Alphons Diepenbrock lived from 1862 to 1921 - exactly 300 years later than jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621). Both composers spent the greater part of their lives in Amsterdam, Sweelinck as the last celebrated representative of the Netherlands school, Diepenbrock as the first north Netherlands composer since then whose music could be measured by international standards.
The Radio Legacy is a compilation of the seven part Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the four box sets devoted to the orchestra s chief conductors Willem Mengelberg, Eduard van Beinum, Bernard Haitink and Riccardo Chailly, and also featuring more recent recordings with Mariss Jansons.
This huge set is "an initiative of Radio Netherlands (the Dutch World Service) and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra…" presented to Bernard Haitink on his seventieth birthday as a tribute to his consummate musicmaking." Haitink, born in Amsterdam in 1929, became joint chief Conductor of the Concertebouw in 1961, along with Eugen Jochum, and was its chief conductor from 1963 to 1988. Like his predecessor, Eduard van Beinum, Haitink also was principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, from 1967 to 1979, and in 1978 became musical Director of the Glyndebourne Opera. Ten years later he became musical director of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Haitink guest conducted most of the major orchestras of the world and has received numerous awards for his services to music. In January 1999 Haitink was named "Honorary Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra."
Finally Dutch conductor Eduard van Beinum is receiving attention he so richly deserves with many of his superb performances appearing on CD. Philips has issued most of his commercial recordings for that label, available mostly in Holland. Dutton Laboratories, LYS and Japanese Decca also have issued a number of recordings (with many yet unissued—see our Features article on Van Beinum). Now we have this set of live concert performances dating from 1935 through 1958. The earliest are from 78 rpm acetates some of which were not in very good condition. Some, not all, have surface disturbances even the most precise digital processing cannot eliminate. However, for the collector this is relatively insignificant considering these remarkable performances.
Willem van Otterloo was by no means a dictatorial conductor, nor was he a glamour-seeker or showman. The music itself had the highest priority. His thorough 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. From this legendary conductor we now have an unique document in our hands. It consists of 38 works (from a total of 125) which where recorded for Philips in the years 1950-60 with the Residency Orchestra The Hague. Also there are two DGG recordings of Haydn symphonies from 1962. The 13 cd’s are all digitally remasterd. This box is a real event: here musical history is written ánd immortalized.