Diepenbrock Symphonic Poems

[Alan Howe]

...forthcoming from cpo:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/alphons-diepenbrock-symphonische-dichtungen/hnum/5434244

[M. Yaskovsky]

Alas, already available on a Chandos CD (8821), Residentie Orkest under Hans Vonk. From times the RO was a proper symphonic band.
De Vogels (The Birds) as an overture; Elektra is a symphonic suite, arranged from incidental music by a play by musicologist Eduard Reeser and Marsyas is a concert suite from incidental music by a play from Balthazar Verhagen. I don't know why cpo call these 'symphonic poems', it's really not what these are.

[Ilja]

It's a bit like calling Van Gilse's Drei Tanzskizzen a "Piano Concerto", I guess. Personally, I wouldn't do it.

Both The Birds and Marsyas sometimes make their appearance in Dutch concert hall, but steadily less so. Diepenbrock has long been hailed as "the first decent composer after Sweelinck" in much the same way that Elgar was received in the "land without music". He had great backers of course, including Mahler and Mengelberg. I have the impression that in the middle of growing interest in Dutch music from the period, his hasn't fared very well.


Someone once called it the musical version of a Klimt painting: all very pretty, but after seeing two you get the idea. Generally, I agree with that assessment. Diepenbrock's music is well-crafted and brilliantly orchestrated, but it can be a bit one-note. It's fairly run-of-the-mill, slightly ennui-dominated Belle Epoque stuff, but not as grandly serious as Van Gilse, uncomplicated as Dopper, cheerful as Wagenaar, or particularly Dutch as Zweers.

[kolaboy]

I like his orchestral songs, but the exclusively orchestral pieces tend not to stick with me.

[eschiss1]

ALL those adjectives sound like damning with faint praise, and I like some of those composers though not as much as I do eg Pijper and Vermeulen (no, not because of the styles in which they generally composed, thanks...)

[Ilja]

If that is what it comes across, I'm sorry. I really like all of them very much – particularly Van Gilse and Dopper.