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Eduard van Beinum 1945-1959 |
 After
the C.O. lost Willem Mengelberg as its figurehead and Rudolf Mengelberg
as it inspiring director, it was Eduard van Beinum who found himself
facing the task of leading the orchestra out of the valley of war. He
met the challenge with all his energy. On 20 July 1945 the C.O. was
ready to give its first concert. The 1945-46 season went almost
normally, with close to a hundred concerts in Amsterdam and several
dozen elsewhere at home and abroad. It was a time of rediscovery. All
the music that had been banned during the war was once more available.
Composers from allied nations, such as Debussy and Tchaikovsky, Jewish
composers such as Mendelssohn, were reinstated with a vengeance; Mahler
and Stravinsky, whom the Nazis had banned as degenerate ,returned on the
programme. Van Beinum's 13 years as principal conductor of the
Concertgebouw Orchestra (1945 - 1959) were the high point of his career.
He led the orchestra in hundreds of concerts at home and all over the
world, and was much in demand as a guest conductor with leading
orchestras abroad. His way of handling an orchestra, which had endeared
him to musicians before and during the war, further increased his
popularity and prestige. His way of approaching the music also commanded
respect. He paid careful attention to the score, never placing himself
in the foreground. He spoke about this in his acceptance speech after
receiving an honorary degree from the University of Amsterdam: "I
believe it to be the sacred duty of the reproducer to step back, to
serve as an instrument, an inspired medium, in order that (...) the
music may sound through him - in this case through an ensemble made up
of a hundred and one individuals - as fully and therefore as truthfully
as possible." He was averse from the practice of many of his
contemporaries to impose their personal interpretation on a composition,
even to the point of altering the score. He refused to make any changes
in a piece's original instrumentation, not even doubling the woodwinds
if he could. He stuck to the tempo directions given by the composer.
Only on exceptional occasions did he deviate, often instinctively, from
a given tempo, sometimes with surprising effect. In one case, he
wondered why, in his edition of Mozart's Symphony KV 201, the allegro
moderato was written in a 4/4 heat, which he felt to be much too slow.
He found the same tempo in 2/2 time far more appropriate. When the
editors of the New Mozart Edition examined the manuscript, they found
the original direction to be 2/2. |
 It
was characteristic of Van Beinum's personality that he insisted on
working with his musicians on an equal footing. He never imposed his own
interpretation on them, but always tried to serve the music. When a
player had an important solo, he used to say: "Just play it the way
you should be played. I'll follow." He handled his players with
psychological insight. He knew under what pressure they were, having to
turn in a top-notch performance night after night. Whenever a musician
had trouble playing some passage, he took time to set him or her at
ease. Van Beinum's wife recalled how he once apologized to a trombonist
who repeatedly made the same mistake: he had given him a wrong cue.
Later, when someone pointed out that not he, but the trombonist had been
wrong, and wondered why he had apologized, Van Beinum replied "Why,
what does it matter? This man is now reassured and will play like an
angel next time round. Isn't that what it's all about?" |
 The
music he had preferred before the war, remained dear to him. His
interpretations of the French impressionist composers, especially
Debussy and Ravel, were rated as being without equal. He reserved a warm
spot in his musical heart for Anton Bruckner, whose work he frequently
performed with the C.O. He was one of the first conductors who made the
London Philharmonic rise to the challenge of playing Bruckner's huge
symphonies in full. His interest in home-grown music remained as keen
after the war as it had been before. He never tired of studying new
scores by Dutch composers and putting the ones he found interesting on
his programmes. He premiered works by Lex van Delden, Marius Flothuis
(who became artistic director of the orchestra in 1955), Hans Henkemans
(Violin Concerto, Flute Concerto), Henk Badings (Fifth Symphony) and
many others. A high point in his work for Dutch music was his silver
jubilee with the C.O., when he expressed the wish that, by way of
anniversary present, the Concertgebouw Orchestra should commission works
from three Dutch composers belonging to three different generations, for
him to perform during his jubilee season, 1956-57. The compositions
should moreover contain important solo parts for members of the
orchestra. The three works resulting from this commission were Catena by
Sem Dresden, a Harp Concerto by Hans Henkemans and Concertante Music by
Hans Kox. Van Beinum began touring extensively. Already in his first
season after the war he led the orchestra on tours of Britain,
Scandinavia and Switzerland. The concerts in Britain, given at the
invitation of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, led to Van Beinum's
part-time engagement with this orchestra. Between 1949 and 1952 he
guest-conducted the orchestra for two months every year, leading many
concerts in the British capital and other cities. In 1954 he was
guest-conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The impression he made on
American audiences led to invitations for a tour of the United States
with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, from Rotterdam the C.O. crossed the
Atlantic to New York, and in the weeks following gave many concerts in
as many cities. Van Beinum conducted most of these, the remainder being
led by Rafael Kubelik, who had had a regular engagement with the C.O.
since 1949. The tour was a resounding success, and the orchestra
returned to Holland laden with glory. For Van Beinum the tour was a
personal triumph. Numerous U.S. orchestras wanted him as a
guest-conductor, some even for permanent engagements. He turned them all
down, as he valued his bond with the Netherlands and the Concertgebouw
Orchestra. The one exception he made was for the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, which he led from 1955 for a number of weeks every year.Van Beinum's taxing schedule and the great energy he took to his work exacted a high toll of his constitution and undermined his health. His heart condition worsened, and during the 1950-51 season he was almost unable to work. Pierre Monteux, then 75, who had shared the post of principal conductor of the C.O. with Willem Mengelberg until 1934, took his place for most of the concerts. Van Beinum recovered sufficiently to resume work in 1951. For several years all appeared togo well, but the year after his silver jubilee, 1957, his health began to fail again. He had to cancel many concerts, and his condition declined. Disaster struck on the morning of April 13,1959. Van Beinum was in the Concertgebouw rehearsing, when he suffered a massive heart attack. People rushed out in panic and stopped an ambulance, which happened to be passing in the street, but the paramedic could do no more than establish Van Beinum's death. |
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Eduard van Beinum was buried on 18 April 1959 in Garderen, a quiet
village in the Veluwe region, where he had lived for many years, away
from the crowd and bustle of city life. The funeral ceremony was
private, although it was broadcast by television. That same evening a
memorial concert wasted by Bernard Haitink, whom Van Beinum had
unofficially designated to be his successor. The programme included
the final chorus of Bach's Saint Matthew Passion and the adagio of
Bruckner's Eighth Symphony, which had been Van Beinum's favourite
piece throughout his life.
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(p) 2001 Dutch Divas |
with his wife, violinist Sepha Jansen, member of the
C.O.