Kees van Baaren, who
studied with Willem Pijper, was one
of the first Dutch composers to embrace
dodecaphony and serialism though without
ever adhering strictly to either technique.
As a renowned pedagogue, he influenced
several of the most notorious Dutch
composers including Peter Schat, Jan
van Vlijmen and Louis Andriessen. However
these composers’ individual personalities
were such that one cannot really speak
of a "Van Baaren School" as
such.
Van Baaren discarded
a number of his early scores, so that
his reputation as a composer rests on
a handful of works of substance that
nevertheless clearly illustrate his
musical progress. The four works in
this disc span some twenty years of
his composing life. One of his early
surviving works is the concise neo-classical
Piano Concertino of 1934.
It belongs to the composer’s first stylistic
period, whereas his late major works
such as the Piano Concerto
of 1964 and the mighty Musica
per orchestra of 1965-1966 clearly
belong to his serially-oriented last
period.
The earliest work here
is the cantata The Hollow Men.
The original version of 1948 was scored
for chamber orchestra, whereas the revised
version of 1955 is scored for standard
orchestral forces. It is clearly a transitional
work; for the music constantly confronts
freely tonal, chromatic orchestral writing
with more traditional choral and vocal
writing. His setting of T.S. Eliot’s
eponymous poem reflects in a fairly
straightforward way the various moods
and feelings suggested by the words.
The final movement is a particularly
striking example of the stylistic dichotomy:
it quotes a British folk tune, actually
suggested by Eliot’s words ("Here
we go round the prickly pear... At five
o’clock in the morning"); but the
folk tune is contradicted by some aggressive,
dissonant martial music. Though still
rooted in tradition, the music nevertheless
points, albeit tentatively, towards
new developments in van Baaren’s musical
thinking.
Sinfonia,
composed in 1956-1957 on a commission
from the City of Amsterdam, still displays
some neo-classical traits reminiscent
of Stravinsky, Hindemith, Fortner and
even Bartók. "The piece
is intended as a carefree, playful homage
to the perfection of classical forms
and orchestral organisation". The
music tends to belie the composer’s
own words for it is often austere, dark-hued
and restrained rather than "carefree
and playful". The final movement
Quodlibet is probably the only
section that may be aptly described
as "carefree and playful".
In Variazioni
per orchestra of 1959, van Baaren
clearly moves one step further into
serialism. This concise, though substantial
set of variations is based on a twelve-tone
row which is intricately worked-out.
Another feature on display in this pivotal
work is the extensive use of percussion.
For all its concision, Variazioni
per orchestra is a major work
that does not pale when compared to
Webern’s own Variationen Op.30.
The imposing Musica
per orchestra of 1965-1966 is,
in some ways, the culmination of van
Baaren’s musical journey. By now he
has fully mastered his technique, which
allows him greater freedom and subtlety
in his handling of twelve-tone material.
The music is redolent of that of Alban
Berg (particularly so in the whimsical
waltz rhythm in the second movement)
but of Dallapiccola. At the same time
there is a formidable orchestral mastery,
that results in what the writer of the
insert notes aptly describes as "serial
bel canto". If you know
Dallapiccola’s superb orchestral work
Three Questions and two
Answers, you will know what
to expect from van Baaren’s Musica
per orchestra, probably the
crowning achievement of his compositional
career.
This very fine release
pays a much deserved tribute to an important
composer whose achievement has often
been overlooked. His limited existing
output in no way rules van Baaren out
as a pedagogue who also composed or
a peripheral composer. Instead it reveals
the substance and originality of his
music.
Hubert Culot
Radio Choira; 