Pieter van Anrooy

[JimL]

I'm listening to the Piet Hein Dutch Rhapsody for Large Orchestra by Pieter van Anrooy (1879-1954) on the Time-Warner Cable Classical Masterpieces channel.  I thoroughly like the piece, but can find only a very short Wiki article on the composer (which needs translation, and you know what Wiki translation is like).  The list of works accompanying the article is small, and I'll bet there's a lot more.  Can anybody provide any more information?  This guy's right up our alley.

P.S. I think I can hear a snatch of Wilms' anthem Wien Neerlands bloed in the piece.

[eschiss1]

Don't know much information at the moment (will see what I can find) and I have only heard / heard of a few works so far - his Piet Hein Rhapsody (1901) and an A major piano quintet (recording by Maarten Bon and members of the Radio Chamber Orch. at
http://www.concertzender.nl/programmagids.php?date=2009-09-15&month=0&detail=38009 which has an audio link at the top right. One does have to listen through or fast-forward past a work by Bosmans first to get to the Anrooy.

There is a recording of the Rhapsody elsewhere on the site I think- try a site-specific google-search )

[Peter1953]

Gijsbert Peter van Anrooij (van Anrooy) has composed only a few works, of which the Piet Hein Rhapsody is by far the best known. It is frequently broadcast in the Netherlands. I cannot recall having heard any of his other compositions. Van Anrooy, as a conductor, was a strong promotor of contemporary music of Dutch composers.
The following list is based upon a Dutch source http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/BWN/lemmata/bwn1/anrooij

March for four-handed piano (1891)
Piano Quartet (1896)
Introduction and Scherzo for Orchestra (1896)
Overture for Orchestra in F Major (1897)
Piano Quintet (1897 or 1898)
Album leaf for Piano (1897)
Romance for Viola and Piano (1900)
Piet Hein Rhapsody for Orchestra (1901, according to other sources 1898)
Ballade for Violin and Orchestra (1902)
Stage Music for "Das Kalte Herz" (the cold heart) by W.G. Hauff
Agnus Dei from the Requiem by Hasse (1916)
Coda for the Jubilee Overture by Von Weber (1934)
Variations on "Aan de oever van een snelle vliet" (On the shore of a fast streaming small river) for Piano (1937)
Old Dutch Dances for Orchestra (1937)
Fuga in A flat major for organ by Brahms, registered for Orchestra (year?)
Two cantatas for children "In het woud" (in the forest) and "Zonneklaartje" (year?)

[Ilja]

In Holland, Van Anrooy is best known for three things: the Piet Hein overture, his promotion of classical music in general and Dutch music in particular on the radio (and in concerts), and his refusal to play the Horst Wessel Lied with the Residentie Orchestra on the wedding of the then crown princess Juliana and (SS member) Bernhard von Lippe-Biesterfeld. In the end, he got replaced and oddly enough, the episode isn't mentioned in most celebratory works by the Residentie Orkest...

The Piet Hein Rhapsody is based on two melodies known to Dutch people: 'Piet Hein', a children's song about a pirate who conquered a Spanish fleet transporting silver from the New World (the sort of thing that gets Dutch people excited), and the then (1901) Dutch anthem, 'Wien Neerlands bloed door d'aadren vloeit' (for whom Dutch blood flows through their veins). That is far less well-known, since it got replaced in 1932 with the 'Wilhelmus', a rather dreadful reworking of a patriotic song from the 16th century.