Miroir de Peine
Brilliant Classics 96304
Hendrik Andriessen,
Henk Badings, Rosy Wertheim, Bertus van Lier
Klaartje van Veldhoven soprano
Matthias Havinga organ
February 2022
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Hendrik Andriessen : Maria, schone vrouwe
Hendrik Andriessen : Miroir de peine
- I. Agonie au Jardin
- II. Flagellation
- III. Couronnement d'épines
- IV. Portement de croix
- V. Crucifixion
Hendrik Andriessen : Sonata da chiesa
- I. Andante sostenuto
- II. Variatie 1
- III. Variatie 2 – Andantino quasi allegretto
- IV. Variatie 3 – Andante sostenuto
- V. Variatie 4 – Allegro marcato
- VI. Variatie 5 – Lento
- VII. Finale – Allegro
Hendrik Andriessen : Magna res est amor
Hendrik Andriessen : La sainte face
Henk Badings: Toccata
Bertus van Lier: Vrijheid
Henk Badings : Preludium en fuga 2
- I. Preludium
- II. Fuga
Rosy Wertheim : Hymne
Henk Badings : Preludium en fuga 2
- I. Preludium
- II. Fuga
Henk Badings: Drie Geestelijke Liederen
- I. Van Jesus de ware ruste
- II. Lied tot alle vermoeyde zielen
- III. Air
About this release
Several world-premiere recordings complementing a powerful sacred song-cycle
by Hendrik Andriessen.
In Miroir de Peine, five stages of the Agony of Christ are viewed from the
perspective of Mary, mother of Jesus.
Composed in 1923, Hendrik Andriessen’s
settings of poems by Henri Ghéon eschew both Romantic and modernist tropes
of the time in favour of a meditative consideration of intimate, mystical
simplicity.
This quality is shared by his later setting of a Paul Claudel
text, La Sainte Face.
In the midst of the Second World War, imprisoned in an internment camp by
Nazi occupying forces, Andriessen then made a devotional setting of a
medieval Marian text, Maria, schone vrouwe’, as a wedding-anniversary gift
to his wife.
The consciously archaic style of this prayer for aid conveys an
intimate yearning, while his Sonata da Chiesa for solo organ employs a more
chromatic language despite the neoclassical origins of the form.
In search of companion pieces for Miroir de Peine, Klaartje van Veldhoven
and Matthias Havinga turned up the music of Rosy Wertheim, a Dutch-Jewish
pianist, teacher, writer and composer who organised covert concerts in the
cellar of her home in Amsterdam during the Occupation.
Like Andriessen, she
also set Magna res est amor, a hymn in praise of love by Thomas a Kempis.
Just as Miroir de Peine is heard here in a version with solo organ rather
than the original string-orchestra accompaniment, Wertheim’s accompaniment
for violin and viola has been adapted for solo organ by Matthias Havinga.
Havinga has also transcribed the piano part of Vrijheid, a neoclassically
styled ode to freedom composed at the end of the war by Bertus van Lier.
Between the vocal items on the album, he interleaves solo-organ pieces by
Henk Badings including an early Toccata and two densely woven preludes and
fugues.
Both of these Dutch artists have made critically acclaimed recordings for
Brilliant Classics. They include ‘Delight in Musicke’ (95654), a collection
of songs and dances from Elizabethan England, and a journey through the
genre of organ passacaglias from Buxtehude to Shostakovich (9269).
- This disc presents songs for soprano and organ by Dutch composers, notably
by Hendrik Andriessen.
- Hendrik Andriessen was born in Haarlem, The Netherlands. He received
lessons from his father, Nicolaas Hendrik Andriessen, who was the music
director and organist at the St. Josef Church in Haarlem, a post Hendrik
took over after his father’s death in 1913.
- Hendrik Andriessen had composition lessons from Bernard Zweers. His first
mature works include religious compositions, organ works, chamber music and
lieder. Andriessen’s style shows obvious influences of the French composers
Vincent d'lndy, César Franck, Gabriel Pierné and Albert Roussel.
- The main work on this CD is Miroir de Peine, a languorous song-cycle to
Henri Vangeon’s poems of religious ecstasy describing the suffering of
Christ from the perspective of the Virgin Mary.
Also included are organ
works by Andriessen, as well as songs and organ works by Rosy Wertheim,
Bertus van Lier and Henk Badings.
Beautifully sung by Dutch soprano Klaartje van Veldhoven. Educated at the
Amsterdam Conservatorium and the Schola Cantorum in Basel she collaborated
with conductors Ton Koopman, Sigiswald Kuijken, Alfredo Bernardini and
Shunsuke Sato.
Dutch organist Matthias Havinga enjoys a successful
international career and is organist of the Oude Kerk and Ronde Lutherse
Kerk in Amsterdam. He made several highly praised CDs for Brilliant Classics.