van Gilse Eine Lebensmesse

[Alan Howe]

...an early work (1904), forthcoming from cpo:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/jan-van-gilse-lebensmesse/hnum/5434243

[Gareth Vaughan]

A recording of a recent concert performance has been posted on "another forum". It is an attractive, if somewhat amorphous, work - I was reminded in parts of Mahler.

[Alan Howe]

I was glad to see that this is an early work, so I'm hoping it'll be an enjoyable listen.

[Ilja]

If you want to try, this is the live performance by the same forces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWhgGznQx9U (uploaded by Radio 4 Classical).


It is very enjoyable piece closely related to the 3rd symphony (Van Gilse's best, I think) and Sulamith, which were all composed within five years of one another.

[Alan Howe]

The work is very Wagnerian, with occasional echoes of Gurrelieder and Mahler 2, which one might expect. A most enjoyable listen overall. And it's very well done by Markus Stenz and his forces (Stenz, of course, has recently recorded the Schoenberg for Hyperion).

[adriano]

I like this Lebensmesse too :-)
This work's title corresponds to the poem collections used, although Delius in his "Eine Messe des Lebens (1905)" inventend a title of his own for Nietzsche's text he had selected.
Just an intermezzo-like information, having more to do with the composer than with this particular work:
Van Gilse was Fritz Brun's friend and fellow student at the Cologne Conservatory in 1901. Thanks to him, Brun's 1st Symphony was premiered in Arnhem in 1902 under the composer's baton.
Later on, after Brun had become chef of the Berne Orchestergesellschaft, Van Gilse wanted to give some concerts in Switzerland of his own works and some Dutch collegues. He had asked Brun for his cooperation. Brun, apparently, promised him a performance of his song-cycle "The Gardener", but after having read negative critics of Dutch performances, he cancelled his cooperation. Fortunately, the songs were performed in Zürich in February 1927, with the the Tonhalle Orchestra, conducted by Volkmar Andreae (who had also been a Cologne fellow student of Van Gilse). Van Gilse was full of grudge and wrote an outraged letter to Brun, who did not respond. That was the end of a friendship and I feel sincerely sorry for Van Gilse - in spite of my great sympathy for Fritz Brun's work and personality. Perhaps there was more than just this reason behind...

[Ilja]

Van Gilse was no stranger to feuds - he "enjoyed" a particularly virulent one with the composer and critic Willem Pijper, whose critical reviews and general backhanded practices caused Van Gilse to resign his conductor post at the Utrechts Orkest when he felt the orchestra's board did not offer him full support (of course, boards never do). It needs to be said, though, that he was a very strict man (as an orthodox calvinist) who had great issues in dealing with critics in general. But still, delving into the issue caused me to dislike Pijper to an extent that still makes it difficult for me to enjoy his music.

[Alan Howe]

I wonder what an orthodox Calvinist was doing setting Dehmel? Interesting...

[Ilja]

Mind you, he set Tagore's Gitanjali to music as well. My understanding is that he became much more religiously conscious in WW1, and particularly during WW2, when both his sons died fighting in the resistance and he was ill and in hiding most of the time. Of course, the rectilinear attitude associated with orthodox protestantism doesn't necessarily express itself merely in religious matters.

[Alan Howe]

rectilinear

upright? highly moral? virtuous?

[Ilja]

Ah, this is perhaps a somewhat too literal translation of the Dutch word rechtlijnig = something akin to "dogmatic", but without the pejorative connotation often associated with the word in English.

[Alan Howe]

"consistent"?

[Ilja]

Nah, too neutral. It's difficult to translate and I probably shouldn't have tried. But I think we know what I'm getting at and I wouldn't want to turn this into a discussion about Anglo-Dutch translation issues.

[Alan Howe]

OK, thanks. Moving on...

[M. Yaskovsky]

I don't want to change Unsung Composers into a language oriented website but as a Duthman, not so well equipped in English as others, I think the Dutch 'rechtlijnig' could be translated into 'dogmatic', 'Calvinistic', 'rigid' and indeed consistent.