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An unconditional belief in music
Frits van der Waa14 February 2020, 18:07
6-8 minutesConductor, composer and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw (81) has died. A spokesperson on behalf of family and friends has said so. De Leeuw's performances were uncompromising, inspired and almost always normative.
"A masterpiece!" If Reinbert de Leeuw was enthusiastic about something, he would not hide it. De Leeuw unconditionally believed in the music he performed, so the pieces he performed were always masterpieces in his eyes - he didn't do it for less. His performances were uncompromising, enthusiastic and almost always normative.
In Reinbert de Leeuw, Dutch music life loses one of its most prominent foremen, who has left his mark on music practice as a conductor, pianist, composer and director for more than half a century.
From rebel he grew into an authority, according to some even as a culture man. But the influence that De Leeuw exercised was always at the service of music. It was never about himself. It should not even concern himself: in 2014, he voiced his veto about a biography of Thea Derks devoted to him. The book was published anyway, but unauthorized.
De Leeuw was born on 8 September 1938 on Amsterdam's Koninginneweg, a neighborhood where he lived for most of his life. His parents, both psychiatrists, died young, so he had to find his own way when he was 18 years old. While studying piano with Jaap Spaanderman and composition with Kees van Baaren, he became a teacher at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 1961 he met composer Louis Andriessen, who became a friend for life and of whom he directed all major works.
In the 1960s he made himself heard as a member of the Nutcrackers, an action group that argued for a more progressive artistic course with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. With four other composers from this group, he wrote the collective opera Reconstruction, which caused a stir in 1969.
Reinbert de Leeuw in 1971. Image Vincent Mentzel
He fought for unknown composers, such as George Antheil and Charles Ives, about whom he wrote a book together with the writer Bernlef. He composed a large orchestral work, Abschied (1973) and the opera Axel (1977), together with Jan van Vlijmen. These works already show his desire for a great expression, for the example, but not directly with the means of Romanticism.
"I've always been immensely interested in that period of late Romanticism, roughly from 1880 to 1914, sometimes it was almost an obsession," he said in 1986. other such crushing pieces have been written. "
Composing fell into the background, certainly when he took care of the Hague club of conservatory students who from 1974 would be called the Schönberg Ensemble. Over the years he has recorded the complete chamber music of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. To his surprise he probably scored a big hit with his quirky, remarkably slow renditions of piano work by Erik Satie. In the meantime, he worked for all kinds of innovations in music practice, and stood at the cradle of the Fund for Creative Music, that composers had to offer a reasonable fee.
The eighties and nineties were his heyday. He collaborated with composers he admired such as Olivier Messiaen, György Ligeti and Mauricio Kagel. Director Cherry Duyns, a loyal brother-in-law, made the revealing series Toonmeesters, which contains wonderful moments, such as his first interview with the shy Belgian composer Galina Oestvolskaya, who did not even want to be portrayed. Oestvolskaya’s uncompromising music, with its hammered dissonant chords, is exemplary of the musical truth, or rather truths, that De Leeuw has always been looking for.
The passion with which De Leeuw defended his beloved repertoire went so far that he sometimes called on critics because of the "damage" they caused to the music, or demanded that high-level editors be put inactive. However, in the eyes of the world he always remained civilized and reasonable.
Although he also enjoyed international prestige, especially in the United States, he did not care for fame or wealth, he drove around in a crashed car and used the shaver mainly when he had to go back on stage.
In 2011, he was saddened to see how much of what he had achieved was demolished in a short time by the culture cutbacks of the Rutte I cabinet, which was blown in by the PVV. his old love, and with his eloquence, he became a welcome guest at DWDD, where he was particularly striking with a performance of 4'33 ”, a 'totally silent' piece by John Cage. His performance in Zomergasten of 2014 (where he took the opportunity to light a shekie during the screening of a video clip) was also memorable.
In 2014 he composed another great orchestral piece, Der nächtliche Wanderer, and continued to broaden his horizons. From 2013 on, for example, he conducted Bach's St. Matthew Passion and, in 2018, the John: because of hi
s love for the sublime, the sublime, actually a very logical step. Duyns also made a documentary about De Leeuw's Matthäus-love, in which the 78-year-old musician sighs: "I would like to have a lifetime to devote myself to this."