Gaudeamus. Het leven van Julius Röntgen (1855-1932). Componist en musicus

Abstract

Gaudeamus Het leven van Julius Röntgen (1855-1932) Componist en musicus Jurjen Vis shows in his thesis Gaudeamus. The life of Julius Röntgen (1855-1932) that already as a young child Julius Röntgen was a remarkable pianist and composer. He was hailed at that time as a second Mendelssohn. In 1874 Röntgen made the acquaintance of Johannes Brahms and soon became one of his most faithful followers. Around 1880 friends and critics called him an epigone, a 'Brahmsianer'. His music was the work of a very able composer but it relied on stronger examples. Röntgens distinctiveness remained a raw nerve for the rest of his life. Röntgen however considered himself as a genuine and authentic composer. He often contrasted the deepest emotions of his own honest, fair and unmodern music with the constructions of so called modern and so called original music of younger composers. It was Edvard Grieg who wrote Röntgen in 1904 that in music not the novelty or originality was important but the sincerity of emotions. Röntgens music didn't lack this quality! Although Röntgen remained loyal to the german classical tradition he was never entirely deaf to modern music. He was fond of Stravinski, Hindemith, Pijper, Gershwin and jazz, but disliked Schönberg and the atonality. Nevertheless he experimented himself with bitonality and atonality. In the last eight years of his life Röntgens output was impressive. He composed more than 100 works, a.o. 20 symphonies. As a director Röntgen failed to make any impression and in 1898 he was set aside by the brilliant Willem Mengelberg, director of the Concertgebouworkest since 1895. Röntgen the pianist was praised as the accompanist of the singer Johannes Messchaert, the cellist Pablo Casals and the violinist Carl Flesch. Röntgen was the co-founder of the Amsterdamsch Conservatorium, where he taught the piano for 42 years. From 1913 till 1924 he was the director of the institute. Jurjen Vis' description and presentation of Röntgens life is basically not chronological but thematical. The coherent life is an idee fixe, a biographer should arrange his material to make a life accesible and intellegible. On the basis of diaries, agendas, hundreds of letters and compositions the author discusses Röntgens apprenticeship, friends, women, musical partners, colleagues, pupils, successes and adversities, his religious conviction and his German background. Röntgens works are explained out of his life and vice versa.