H. ANDRIESSEN Symphonies: No. 1;1 No. 2;2 No.3;3 No.4.4 Ricercare.5 Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Kuhnau.6 Variations on a Theme of Couperin.7 Symphonic Study8 • Albert van Raalte, cond;1 Willem van Otterloo, cond;2,7 Jean Fournet, cond;3,4,8 Edo de Waart, cond;5 Jaap van Zweden, cond;6 Adriaan Bonsel (fl);7 Netherlands RPO • ET’CETERA 1307, mono1 (2 CDs: 128: 03)

Hendrik Andriessen (1892–1981), the son of an organist and a painter, could be called the father of Dutch music in the 20th century, not only for his own compositions but for his children’s and grandchildren’s, so many of whom became important musicians. His son Juriaan was a brilliant composer who died young. Hendrik’s youngest son Louis, one of the early minimalists, has become the most widely known Dutch composer of all time. Hendrik was an organist, a critic, and a teacher of composition, composing in his spare time. A conservative modernist, he followed the course of musical developments and incorporated many of them into his music. The Kuhnau Variations are filled with parallel fifths; the first movements of the Symphonic Study and of the Fourth Symphony are based on tone rows. And yet it is all so smoothly integrated that nothing could offend even the most conservative listener. Andriessen’s elegant music is sumptuous, at times even voluptuous, yet without a hint of sentimentality. His quiet life—there were no musical or personal scandals, no outrageous articles, no ballyhooed battles with conductors, as there were with Willem Pijper and Alexander Vermeulen—meant that he was often overlooked or undervalued in Dutch and world musical life, despite the consistent admiration of those who knew his work.

This set includes most of his purely orchestral music; there are also several concertos, some melodramas, and a few vocal pieces, headed by the stunning Miroir de peine. At least six of these eight works have been recorded multiple times in Holland, many by great ensembles such as the Concertgebouw and Residentie Orchestras, under van Beinum, Haitink, and van Otterloo. While some of those performances are superior to the ones heard here, one would have had to follow Dutch music for half a century, subscribing to the likes of the Donemus Audio-Visual Series, to have heard them. These performances of the Second and Third Symphony appeared on Donemus 7071-3, an LP that included facsimiles of the manuscript scores. The performances on these discs, given from 1947 to 2005, are all better than merely satisfactory; I’ve never heard a poor performance of any Andriessen work; he seems to inspire dedication and concentration in his performers. The symphonies sing and storm, the variations swing, the Ricercare thunders. Dutch engineering has always been exceptional; even the monaural 1947 recording of the First Symphony sounds fine here. Everything else is in stereo. Two Andriessen offspring contribute to the program notes: Louis gives his father a superbly informed tribute, and daughter Caecelia, a pianist and piano teacher, outlines all eight works in musical and historical detail. One revelation is that her mother wrote out all the parts for the premiere of the First Symphony by hand—for each desk—because there were no copying machines in 1930.

Hendrik Andriessen has long been one of my two favorite “unknown” composers, along with Heinrich Marschner. Nor have I been alone in my opinion: an Andriessen CD I reviewed in Fanfare 23:4 (Four Concertos, on NM Classics 92066) made several Want Lists 2000. Allow me to quote at length from Paul Snook: “Andriessen’s transfiguring idiom offers a near-ethereal synthesis of Franckian chromaticism and a highly personal—and sometimes quite dramatic—interpretation of classical forms and ecclesiastical modes. A rarefied spirituality and a refined sensuousness are his most characteristic traits, as exemplified best in his four magnificent symphonies (of which we sorely need an integral modern recording).”

And now for a few of my own words, from that review: “. . . dignified, eloquent music, conservative in style but richly imaginative in content, draped in silken tones. . . . If ever there was a 20th-century composer who could please all tastes, this is he.” Try it; you’ll love it.

FANFARE: James H. North