Verhulst Symphony in E minor (1841)

[Alan Howe]

I thought it might be time for a re-assessment of Verhulst's only symphony. Having not listened to it for ages, I find it a rather fine work - Mendelssohnian in conception, perhaps, but Beethovenian in spirit, and altogether non-epigonic. I must consider whether there are any possible influences from, say, Spohr, as he was fashionable in that period, but overall Verhulst seems to have forged his own symphonic synthesis. A good work, well worth reviving, I'd've thought. 

To think that the composer lived on another fifty years after composing it...

[eschiss1]

It's always struck me very positively when I've caught it on the air.

[Ilja]

Perhaps a bit of background is useful. To begin with, I think Verhulst's symphony is among the finest produced in the Netherlands, for the reasons Alan indicated. It has often been dismissed as merely "derivative", but I think that has more to do with Verhulst's personality than any kind of fair musical assessment.

The problem is that Verhulst spent much of his life in key positions of administrative power, making a nuisance of himself for anyone wishing to compose or perform music more progressive than his own – particularly anything smelling of Wagner, but most other new schools as well. This turned him into probably the most hated figure in the Dutch musical world of the 19th century, and by the time he died as an embittered recluse in 1891, he was mourned by few in the Dutch music scene. Predictably, his artistic reputation rather suffered from this aspect of his life.

That's a pity, because much of his music is of a very high standard, and it says something that not even the universal loathing for Verhulst has succeeded in erasing him as a composer. The symphony is a good example, and among his orchestral output, the C minor Gijsbrecht van Aemstel overture (after Vondel's play) and overtures in B minor and in D minor stand out as colourful, evocative and well-constructed pieces. I agree with Alan that he's not just a Mendelssohnian epigone; there are traces of Beethoven, Spohr and Rossini throughout. Temperamentally, he rather reminds me of Kalliwoda.

The fact that he mostly abandoned composing for administrative work has alway struck me as a tragedy. Perhaps, and I'm speculating here, it has something to do with the dominance of choral music in the Netherlands during the middle of the 19th century. His Mass, Op. 20 is by no means bad, but it's really nothing special either; Verhulst's talents clearly lay elsewhere. Making a living as a composer in the musical backwater that was the Netherlands in those days must not have been easy; had he lived 20 years later, his story would have been a very different one.