401Concerts 7 Dutch Heldentenor arias II (Recording session Cantina Vocaal)

The second 401Concerts studio recording session was a try-out, aiming at testing locations and equipment/settings, since recording large voices is not possible in just every space. Even so, Ernest W. Mulders Daphne (1935) proved already perfect at the try out. The other titles we will perfect in later sessions before releasing them. In the selected music we were surprised by the freshness of the music of Van de Rovaart. The sheer pleasure in writing singable music in an uncomplicated manner proved delightful. As forgotten as Van de Rovaart may be today, he had true success in Vienna around 1896 with his opera Der verwunschene Prinz, something that few Dutch composers can say. Dopper's Frithjof fascinated and surprises by its vicinity of the Wagnerian tone of voice: Parsifal, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser III are never far in this Nordic saga. At the time the opera has only been performed in highlights at a local concert/ All recordings from it are world premieres. Brandts Buys Hero und Leander preceded our Jan Brandts Buys Festival Zutphen in September 2018. It is late Brandts Buys, very different from the music of the Spieloper-composer of his younger years. In hero und Leander he composes energetic and very individual music for the famous classical tragedy. Perhaps the largest surprise in the programme is Carel Oberstadt’s opera De Scheveningers from 1940, an opera once recommended to me by the late Jan van Dijk. Oberstadt was no revolutionary modernist, but he managed to create very dramatic music with an individual sound that, from afar, perhaps can be linked to to the atmosphere of Grieg or Sibelius. The music surprised us to the point that we are now working toward a plan to perform it integrally (or in highlights) in 2018.

Hendrik Vonk (tenor)
Barbara Schilstra (sopraan)
Wolter Willemsen (vleugel Bechstein)
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Location: Cantina Vocaal, Amsterdam
Audio: Merlijn Verboom (audio)
Production: René Seghers
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Partner: Nederlands Muziek Instituut

Programme:

MC Van de Rovaart – Der verwunschene Prinz (1895)    
1    Act III ‘Ich habe wohl gehofft’ (Lied Prinz)

Cornelis Dopper - Frithjof (1895)
2    Act II ‘Hoor mij aan voor gij beslist’

MC Van de Rovaart – Liebe (Liefde) (1899)    
3     Act I ‘Hoort, een krijgsman staat voor de deur’

Jan Brandts Buys – Hero und Leander (1929)
4   Act 3 ‘Hier liege du’ (Hero)
5    Act 3 ‘Ha, was ist das? Zurück!’ (Hero, Leander)

Ernest Mulder - Daphne (1935)             
6    Act 2 Duet Apollo Daphne (declamatie)
7    Act 3 ‘Kore! Kore! Kore!’ (Lied Rhuax)

Carel Oberstadt - De Scheveningers (1940)                 
8    Akte II Ik drijf als wrak nu rond  aria Jan)

Wij zullen op korte termijn al deze aria’s en duetten met Vonk, Schilstra en Willemsen in definitieve versies te registreren.