2023-2024

6-14 August 2024
Short holiday in Germany: Mainz, Munich, Nuremberg, Bayreuth and Weimar, partly to deliver presentation copies to libraries and archives of which I had published illustration material in Franz Liszt in the Netherlands, partly to breathe some Liszt air once more in the cities he frequented. In Munich I visited the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and the Alte Pinakothek, in Bayreuth the completely renovated Villa Wahnfried, Wagner’s residence where Franz Liszt was a frequent guest, and in Weimar, of course, the Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv. Best of all, however, was Nuremberg, where I saw an exhibition at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, admired the magnificent Sankt-Sebalduskirche with the tomb of the composer Johann Froberger, and wandered down the picturesque Albrecht Dürerstrasse to the medieval Kaiserburg.

 

Franz Liszt’s death house, right next to the Villa Wahnfried; it is now a Liszt museum.

27 July 2024
On this day, Kindle Direct Publishing, closely linked to Amazon, published Franz Liszt in the Netherlands. Since foreign Liszt literature pays scant attention to the five visits the great pianist and composer made to our country, I thought it might be wise to release an English version as well. In terms of content and outer appearance, the two versions hardly differ. For more information, see WRITINGS > Books & Brochures > A-III-11.

23 July 2024
Book presentation of Franz Liszt in the Netherlands in Berg en Dal, a private meeting for members of the Probus branch, Nijmegen.

25-29 March 2024
Short holiday in Luxembourg, mainly to do some research on ‘Schloss Colpach’, the country house of the painter Munkácsy and his wife, where Liszt stayed for about two weeks shortly before his death. It turned out to be located close to the Belgian border, surrounded by a beautiful sculpture park. This was the subject of an article for the Franz Liszt Circle Magazine (WRITINGS > Articles, No. 101).

10 March 2024, start 14:30 hrs.
Book presentation of Franz Liszt in the Netherlands in the Cultural Salon, Oude Delft 200, Delft. After the interval, young pianist Martin Kaptein will perform works by Liszt (Funérailles and Vallée d’Obermann) and Skriabin (the Eighth Sonata and Vers la flamme). As an encore, Martin will play the only composition Franz Liszt composed in the Netherlands: the unknown Valse pour Marie (world premiere).

Entrance on the basis of a voluntary contribution.

9 March 2024, start 15:00
Book presentation of Franz Liszt in the Netherlands in the Piet Gerrits Hall of Museumpark Orientalis, Mgr. Suyslaan 4, 6564 BV Heilig Landstichting. After the interval, young pianist Martin Kaptein will perform works by Liszt (Funérailles and Vallée d’Obermann) and Skriabin (the Eighth Sonata and Vers la flamme); as an encore, Martin will play the only composition Franz Liszt composed in the Netherlands: the unknown Valse pour Marie (world premiere).

Admission to this joint performance, organised by the Franz Liszt Kring, is €20; donors to the Franz Liszt Kring pay €15; children under 16 have free admission.

February 2024
As secretary of the Franz Liszt Kring, in 2011 I had put together an exhibition on the subject ‘Franz Liszt in the Netherlands’ and written the accompanying catalogue. Based on this, a monograph of the same name was written in 2022-23: Franz Liszt in Nederland. In this book, we follow the famous pianist and composer from day to day during the five visits he made to our country – all together about three, intensively lived months, during which he had regular contact with the Dutch royal family. For more information, see under WRITINGS > Books and Brochures > AB III-10.

  

21 October 2023
At the Franz Liszt Circle’s annual congres, pianist Sebastiaan Oosthout performed, presenting his CD Un pellegrino in cerca [‘A pilgrim in search’] with parts of Liszt’s Années de Pèlerinage. The day ended with a beautiful recital by Wibi Soerjadi, who performed four masterpieces by Liszt. The first of these was Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude, part III of the cycle Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. This prompted me to give a lecture on the genesis of this masterpiece as a trait d’union between the two recitals. In the 1990s, I conducted research into the genesis of that cycle, which resulted in the publication of twenty previously unknown piano pieces (AB II-09, AB II-10, AB II-11). The preliminary stages of the Bénédiction are: the Prélude to the first design of the cycle from 1845, converted into the Postlude of the second version of the cycle from 1847, which in turn was integrated into an early, no longer existing version of Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude, originally the eleventh movement of the 1847 cycle. Thus, the final 1853 version is actually a composite of the last two movements of the 1847 cycle, which Liszt composed at the country house of Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein in the Ukrainian village of Woronince/Voronivtsi. During my lecture, the Postlude was performed by the pianist Alexandra Kaptein.

September 2023
The Fantasy on Themes from the opera Thaïs by Jules Massenet is stylistically and structurally somewhat akin to the paraphrase on themes from Clémence de Grandval’s opera Mazeppa (AB II-27), which was brought to the limelight two years earlier. Both music dramas are late-Romantic products of French origin with a strong Orientalist influence. Sensual ballet music plays an important role in both essentially tragic, full evening works; in both, a lyric melody occurs that returns at the end of the opera expanded grandly. In the case of Massenet’s opera, this is the beloved Méditation de Thaïs, which is known in numerous arrangements; however, a concert paraphrase on themes from the total opera was never written. For more information, see AB II-28.