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Biography, part one |
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admittedly taken from: "Willem Mengelberg Dirigent Conductor", Haags Gemeente Museum, 1995. Frits Zwart BACKGROUND AND EDUCATION
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 Willem
Mengelberg, Lucerne 1895On the 28th of March 1871, Willem (actually Joseph Wilhelm) Mengelberg was born in Utrecht. His parents were married on the 14th of February 1866. They had sixteen children, born between 1867 and 1890, eight sons and eight daughters, some of whom died young. Willem was the fourth child. Like his brothers and sisters he was initiated in the crafts practised in the father's atelier, but his natural musicality gained the upper hand. With time his parents recognised that a professional musical training was not to be avoided. Artistic talent can be observed throughout the family trees of both the parental families. The foundation of Mengelberg's career was laid in the conservatory in Cologne. He developed as a talented and hard-working pupil. For his main subjects, he studied piano under Isidor Seiss (1840-1905), who in turn had studied with Friedrich Wieck, the father of Clara Schumann, and composition with Dr. Franz Wüllner (1832-1902). The latter was also his teacher for conducting and he studied music theory and composition with Gustav Jensen. Mengelberg's study was a great success and he completed the course with brilliant results for piano, composition and conducting. The commendations of his teachers Wüllner and Seiss are mainly in the direction of a career in piano playing. Later, Mengelberg declared: "I am much indebted to my teachers at the Cologne conservatory and if ever I became a good musician it is thanks to my teachers Franz Wülllner and Isidor Seiss [.. ], teachers of a rare quality with which one seldom meets". |
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APPOINTMENT IN AMSTERDAM In 1895, Mengelberg was presented with the honourable request to
become conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. This
ensemble had been founded in 1888 and had acquired a good name under
the conductor Willem Kes. Kes, however, had found an improved position
in Scotland. Mengelberg came to stand before the Concertgebouw
Orchestra as a young man of twenty-four. His first years in Amsterdam
can not have always been easy for him. Complaints were made about his
changing ideas about some scores, the members of the orchestra
sometimes behaved in a difficult manner and his health was not
everything it might have been. Yet Mengelberg's popularity grew
steadily. In 1897 one of the critics of the Dutch press mentioned
Mengelberg as "an artist of God's mercy". With his
interpretations he managed to persuade his concert-going public and he
succeeded in raising the level of the orchestra. Gradually, his
musical gifts became recognised in The Netherlands and his position
grew rapidly. He became conductor of the Diligentia concerts in The
Hague, of the St. Cecilia Society and of the Philharmonic Choir in
Amsterdam. |
 After
working with the Concertgebouw Orchestra for a number of years,
Mengelberg began to make a name and requests gradually came for him to
be the guest conductor elsewhere. When the Concertgebouw Orchestra took
part in the Strauss Festival in London in 1903, the Sunday Spectator
remarked that it might have been better if Mengelberg had conducted more
and Strauss less. Mengelberg received an important invitation to come to
conduct the orchestra of the Philharmonic Society in New York in
November 1905. After his performance the Musical Courier described his
interpretation of Ein Heldenleben the best there was in New York at that
moment, including that of Strauss himself. From that time onwards, the
world stood open for him. He conducted for the first time in Paris in
1907 and in the same year he took on the position as conductor of the
Frankfurter Museumsgesellschaft and a year later was given the
directorship of a choir equivalent to the Philharmonic Choir in
Amsterdam. In 1908 he conducted in Rome, from 1909 onwards for a number
of years he conducted in Moscow and St. Petersburg, in 1910 he conducted
in various Italian cities and in 1911 in London. However, because of his
obligations in Amsterdam and Frankfurt, he had to refuse many
invitations.On many occasions Mengelberg was asked to be conductor or guest conductor of other orchestras. In 1910 an attempt was made to engage him as permanent conductor of the Philharmonic Society in New' York where Mahler then had a position. In general Mengelberg made high financial demands in such situations and commanded the salaries of other much asked-for conductors of the day such as Arthur Nikisch and Vladimir Safonoff. In the period between 1921 and 1930 Mengelberg was working in New York for about half the concert season. He was able to train the combined former New York Philharmonic and National Symphony Orchestras to be a perfect ensemble. His spectacular recording of Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss with this orchestra in 1928 gives unequivocal evidence for this. From 1927 onwards, Toscanini was also conductor of this orchestra. It is worth noting that with the arrival of Toscanini, Mengelberg's programmes became increasingly adventurous. Yet already before Toscanini arrived, Mengelberg involved himself far more in the work of American composers than Toscanini was ever to do. In New York Mengelberg gave 'Original Performances' of music by Kurt Atterberg, Nicolai Beresovski, Simon Bucharoff, Alfredo Casella, Gaspar Cassadó, Darius Milhaud, Ottorino Respighi, Ernest Schelling, Bernard Wagenaar and Emerson Withorne. Besides the tested symphonic repertoire he also presented many first performances in New Yorker or in America. Names of such composers as Ernst Bloch, James Dunn, Manuel de Falla, Pierre Ferroud, Paolo Gallico, Samuel Gardner, Heinrich Gebhard, Rubin Goldmark, Henry Hadley. Howard Hanson, Heinrich Kaminsky, Riccardo Pick-Mangialli, John Powell. Henri Rabaud, Lazare Saminsky, Karol Szymanowsky, Germaine Tailleferre, Alexandre Tansman, Deems Taylor, George Templeton-Strong and Hermann Hans Wetzler show that Mengelberg renewed the repertoire with a certain regularity over the years. Of course, Mengelberg also performed much of this repertoire in Amsterdam. As a result of the unavoidable rivalry between the supporters of Mengelberg and Toscanini, Mengelberg left New York after a last performance with the New York orchestra in 1930. The proposed European concert tour of the orchestra of the Philharmonic Society for which Mengelberg had done so much for so long, was realised in that year. But it was Toscanini who could claim the crown of success because it was he who conducted all the concerts. |
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FRIENDS It hardly need be said that many friendships grew up over the years
with the musicians and composers with whom Mengelberg worked. Gustav
Mahler, Richard Strauss, Alphons Diepenbrock, Ernest Schelling and
Alexander Siloti are but a few of those friends. There were of course
also many of those from the better circles of Amsterdam who liked to
be considered a friend of Mengelberg. These were naturally mostly
music lovers and the admirers of the conductor, and indeed Mengelberg
kept up close relationships with many of them including Charles
Boissevain (and his associates), Jo Beukers-Van Ogtrop and Ellie
Bysterus Heemskerk, sometimes friends at first sight but above all
friends for life. |
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(p) 2001 Dutch Divas |
The
parents of Willem Mengelberg, Friedrich Wilhelm Mengelberg and Helena
Schrattenholz, both German by birth, established themselves with their
atelier for church art in Utrecht in 1869. The immediate reason for
their move to The Netherlands lay in the fact that Mengelberg senior
had obtained the commission to make the church furniture for the Roman
Catholic Cathedral in Utrecht after he had made the bishop's throne
for the same cathedral in 1868. He equipped numberless churches in The
Netherlands with furniture. The complete furniture of the St. Nicholas
church in Jutphaas, designed by Alfred Tepe, came from the Mengelberg
workshop. He also provided furniture for many other Roman Catholic
churches including ones in Utrecht, Schalkwijk, Ijsselstein, Raalte,
Abcoude, Arnhem, Kortenhoef, Houten, Mijdrecht, Workum and Amsterdam.
Altar pieces were also made in the atelier for such churches as those
in Zwolle, Amsterdam, Hilversum, Harlingen, Abcoude and Apeldoorn. In
Germany, work from the Mengelberg workshop found its way to Bonn,
Frankfurt am Main, Cologne, München-Gladbach, Paderborn and other
places. For the cathedral in Cologne he fashioned work representations
of the stations of the cross, the bronze doors for the North door and
many other works of art, mostly church furniture. The increase in
commissions for the work of Mengelberg was especially the result of
the belief of the priest G.W. van Heukelum in the work of Mengelberg
and in his artistic ideals. Van Heukelum acted as the unofficial
adviser to the Bishop of Utrecht Mgr. A.I. Schaepman in matters of
church art which naturally led to the work of Mengelberg coming to the
attention of the bishop. 
From
1892 onwards, Mengelberg worked in Lucerne where he could develop his
many talents. There he conducted a choir and an orchestra, directed a
music school, gave piano lessons and gave concerts with his ensembles.
He even found time to devote to composition. In general one can say
that his time in Lucerne was a busy one in which he gained valuable
experience as a conductor, both choral and orchestral. The extent of
his activities in the latter fields was nonetheless only of small
demands in comparison with the work he was to do in Amsterdam. On
average, in Lucerne, he conducted one orchestral concert a month. But
the influence on his development for the future was of great
importance, an importance he increased by his own curiosity to learn:
"As a young choir-master in Lucerne then, I soon noticed that I
could not demonstrate on various instruments and I immediately saw
that this was an unacceptable problem. I then took lessons from all
the musicians in order to learn the holds from them."
A
number of the members of the board of governors of the Concertgebouw
who served a term of office during the period in which Mengelberg
conducted there, can, without exaggeration, be counted amongst his
most trusted friends. The Gedenkboek Mengelberg 1895-1920 contains
various references to these friendships. It is clear that for many
Mengelberg was not immediately an easy friend. Of the many Dutch
friends a number are mentioned here who meant much to him and whose
frienship lasted a number of years. Charles Boissevain was a member of
the board of the Concertgebouw and one of the first friends of
Mengelberg when he came to Amsterdam. Together with him and members of
his family, Mengelberg would make excursions down to the Rhine valley
in the quiet week before Easter when the performances of the St.
Matthew Passion were done with. Mengelberg sometimes went on a cure
with Boissevain in Karlsbad. Jo Beukers-Van Ogtrop was the president
of the Philharmonic Choir in Amsterdam and a friend of both Willem and
Tilly Mengelberg. She was a central figure in the Philharmonic Choir
and was particularly instrumental in the organisation of the concert
tours made by the choir and the Concertgebouw Orchestra to Brussels,
Paris and elsewhere. Ellie Bysterus-Heemskerk also gradually meant
more and more to Mengelberg and his wife. She was a violinist with the
Concertgebouw Orchestra through which she got to know Mengelberg.
Together with her mother she accompanied Mengelberg to America,
already in the twenties. Later she was especially involved with the
care of his scores. After Mengelberg's death in 1951 she was gradually
given the responsibilitv for what was later to become the Mengelberg
archive, a responsibilitv she undertook with considerable dedication.
Like other friends, she was Mengelberg's guest at his 'Chasa
Mengelberg' in Graubünden in Switzerland. An inscription on a
photo of 'Chasa Mengelberg' written by Willem Mengelberg shows that he
already counted her amongst his best friends in 1918: "To 'Aunt'
Ellie Heemskerk, in memorv of Chasa M"' An illustration of
Mengelberg's hospitality is given by the text written on another photo
"To Aunt Ellie - 'work donkey' at the 'Chasa' from her thankful
'work horse' OH. 31st Aug.1922".