Amsterdam

Music building in service of new developments in classical and modern music. It was built on the shore of the IJ in 2005 after a Danish design (3N). One hall with 725 seats and variable acoustics. Second hall with 100 seats and the revolutionary organ by Adriaan Fokker from 1950, apt to be played on in practically every tuning system by means of the division of the octave in 31 tones. www.muziekgebouw.nl

Annex is the Bimhuis for jazz and improvised music.

New Conservatorium building, opened in 2008. Architect F. van Dongen. Five concert halls. cf. > 1917

www.ahk.nl/conservatorium

The jazz musician Chesnay (‘Chet’) Baker, °1929, fell from the window of his hotel room and died on 13.V.1988.

House of composer Peter Schat (1935-2003), from 1966 until his death. Schat was an important representative of the 1960s avant-garde. Later he based a new harmonic system on his invention of the Toonklok (‘tone clock’), which he had depicted on stained glass windows in his studio.

Grave of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, the greatest composer of the Northern Low Countries and organist here from 1577 until his death in 1621. His organ recitals attracted crowds, also among foreign visitors. His father preceded (1564-77) and his son Dirk succeeded him († 1652). His nearby houses at Lange Niezel 15 (parental home, 1564-’90) and Koestraat 13/15 (1590-1621) were demolished. No plaques, no monument. Sweelinck’s organ is not extant; the present organ is by Chr. Vetter (1726) and J. Caspar Müller (1742), III/p/55. There are two smaller organs, in 18^th c. cases.

 The German composer and harpsichord virtuoso Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch (°Brunswick, 1695) worked as organist of this church and teacher (1743-†1765) after a precarious career in different countries.

Fine organ, built by Nic. Langlet, 1680 (case) and Chr. Muller, 1733 and restored in 1965. II/p/26. The harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt, pioneer of historic performance practice, was organist here.

In 1866 Franz Liszt appeared with a performance of his Psalm xiii and Graner Messe (Esztergom Mass); it was worth a plaque.

Also Camille Saint-Saëns and Charles Widor visited this church; they played the French style organ by Adema-Philibert from 1871 (restored in 1994), III/p/48.

The Muziektheater , opened in 1986, is in fact the first real opera theatre in the Netherlands; all previous plans since the 1920s to build a permanent opera house had been unsuccessful. The building has been combined with the new Town hall, hence its nickname Stopera (stadhuis+opera). The design by the architects Holzbauer and Dam called forth critical remarks, but during the leadership of Pierre Audi, 1988 to 2018, it became one of the leading opera theatres of the world. Exceptionally large platform, 1600 seats.

www.operaballet.nl

Opened in 1887 as Koninklijk Nederlandsch Circus Oscar Carré and in the beginning only used as circus. From 1903 onwards variété, revues, musicals and cabaret were added. Since the performances of the politically engaged opera Reconstructie in 1969, a cooperative work by the avant-garde composers Louis Andriessen, Reinbert de Leeuw, Misha Mengelberg, Peter Schat and Jan van Vlijmen, the stage is incidentally used for those opera and ballet productions to which the marvelous hall is better tailored than the Muziektheater.

House of the composer and teacher Louis Andriessen (1939-2021), youngest son of the composer Hendrik Andriessen.  Since his monumental work De Staat (1976), he obtained an international reputation; numerous young composers from all over the world are taught by him.

The present Kleine Komedie (cabaret etc.) is the former Théâtre Français sur l’Erwtemarkt, built in 1786 and presenting French plays and operas until 1855.

Worldwide one of the leading factories of barrel organs. Established in 1875, since 1932 housed in this building.

The visit includes a guided tour through the still operating factory and an exhibition of its instruments; they will be played too.

Extensive collection of player pianos and an archive with c 25.000 piano rolls, several of which were played in by composers from around 1900: Grieg, Saint-Saëns, Mahler, Debussy and others. Authenticity warranted! Demonstrations are given. www.pianola.nl

The instrument collection of the Amsterdam Conservatory was exposed until 2015 in the Geelvinck Hinlopen Huis at the Keizersgracht. A part of the collection will stay in this annex, a former church; another part is moved to Zutphen (> nl5.1501).

The conservatory was established in 1884 and occupied this 17^th century building from 1908 until 1931. The composers Julius Röntgen (director) and Bernard Zweers (teacher) worked here.

Other former Conservatorium buildings: Bachstraat 5 (1931-84) and Van Baerlestraat 27 (1984-2008).

In this former concert hall from 1788 to 1888 performances by Robert and Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Camille Saint-Saëns took place. During the next hundred years it housed successively a printing office, the headquarters of the Dutch communist party, an avant-garde theatre and from 1988 until 2014 a European Centre of Art, Culture and Science.

www.felixmeritis.nl

The first theatre of Amsterdam was built in 1637 and extended in 1664; from 1677 it was used for spoken drama and mainly French opera, but in 1738 Vivaldi appeared with Italian music. The theatre burnt down in 1772 during a performance of Le Déserteur by Monsigny ; the extant entrance gate is the silent witness of the Inferno, that killed eighteen people and destroyed many neighboring houses.

Its successor at the Leidseplein, with many opera performances (a.o. by the Wagner Society} burnt down too, in 1890.

The opera house of Th. Strijker at the Leidsegracht (1680) with Italian repertoire existed only 53 weeks.

The present Municipal Theatre was opened in 1894 and today it is mainly used for spoken drama and incidentally for (ancient) operas, but before the realization of the Muziektheater  (> 1010) in 1986 it was the most fitted stage for opera.

This popular temple for lovers of rock music and cannabis was once the building of a religious community, the Vrije Gemeente. In 1884 Brahms conducted here his Second Piano Concerto, with Julius Röntgen as soloist, and a part of his Third Symphony. The composer was very dissatisfied with the orchestra.

(Next year he brought with him the Meininger Hofkapelle. Amsterdam was ashamed; three years later the Concertgebouw and its more solid orchestra were ready to present themselves, but Brahms didn’t return.)

The composer and conductor Jan van Gilse settled here in 1933, but in 1942 he went into hiding and died two years later; after the war his widow returned. Van Gilse was a good composer of late romantic music, but his career suffered from the violent critical attacks by his colleague Willem Pijper.

Apartment of the Swiss composer Frank Martin, from 1946, as he settled in Holland, until 1956. During that period he was teaching at the Cologne academy of Music. In 1956 he moved to Naarden (>nl 7.2302).

The Italian violin virtuoso and composer Pietro Locatelli had moved to Holland in 1729 and obtained permission

for printing, publishing and selling his music. In 1736 he settled in this house 'De oude Helm' (Italian plaque!);

in 1741 he moved to the opposite side of the canal (not extant).

Grave of Pietro Locatelli, †1764. Organ by Flentrop, 2005, as a replica of the former Müller organ from 1753.

Former protestant church, called Parkkerk or Vondelkerk. Collection of romantic/modern organs and a barrel

organ. Regular concerts, including experimental performances.

www.orgelpark.nl

In 1888 the new Concertgebouw became the main concert hall of the city (1574 seats); its chamber music hall

(438 seats) was modeled on the Felix Meritis hall (>1018). The architect was Dolf van Gendt. Its excellent acoustic

quality is widely praised. From 1985 to ’88 the building was renovated and extended.

Also in 1888 the Concertgebouw Orchestra was established. First conductor was Willem Kes, but during the

Mengelberg era it became world famous. Important compositions were dedicated to him (Ein Heldenleben by

1. Strauss, the Peacock Variations by Kodály). The Beethoven Festival and the Matthäus Passion on Palm Sunday

became yearly traditions. Highlights were the Mahler Festival of 1920 and its reprise in 1995, as a result of the

close relation with the composer in the 1900s. The successors of Mengelberg include Van Beinum, Haitink, Chailly, Janssons and Gatti; Muck, Monteux, Walter and Jochum were additional chief conductors.

www.concertgebouw.nl www.concertgebouworkest.nl

Double house of the conductor Willem Mengelberg from 1900. Mahler stayed here during his visits in 1903, '04,

'06 and '09.

House of the composer and pianist Géza Frid (1904-89). He was of Hungarian birth and settled in Amsterdam in 1929; in this house he lived from 1937 to 1988. His teachers (and friends) were Bartók and Kodály; the latter visited him here in 1966. His Music, compassing all genres, is still performed. > https://gezafrid.eu

House of Alphons Diepenbrock during 1901-†1921. He was a classic scholar but in his later life mainly a composer of church music, songs and instrumental works, essentially based on literary sources. His incidental music to Sophocles’ Elektra is a masterpiece. Gustav Mahler was befriended with him and visited this house. Descendants of the composer still live in the upper floors.

Diepenbrock was born in Amsterdam in 1862, but his birthplace at Rokin 99 has been demolished.

The street is named after the conservative composer Johannes Verhulst, who after Johannes van Bree (nearby street name) dominated the 19th century concert life of the city.

In the pavement in front of the former house of the composer Franz (Ferenc) Weisz, °Budapest 1893, a so called Stolperstein was placed. Such brass ‘stumbling stones’ are the initiative of the German artist Gunter Demnig, who places them near houses of Nazi victims all over Europe. Weisz lived in the Netherlands since 1920 and was killed in Auschwitz in 1944.

House of the composer and pianist Leo Smit (1900-1943) from 1937 until he was deported to Auschwitz and killed. His small oeuvre of orchestral and chamber works with an unmistakable French flavor is of high quality. Here also a ‘stumbling stone’, as at the previous address.

The jazz musician Ben Webster (1909), a master on tenor saxophone, lived from 1963 in Amsterdam and died

there in 1973.

Formerly part of the Colonial Institute, later Royal Institute of the Tropics; ethnomusicologist Jaap Kunst worked

here. Large collection of ethnic instruments, including two full Gamelan orchestras. In 2014 it fused with the

ethnological museums of Leiden and Berg en Dal into a ‘National Museum of World Cultures’, but the rich library

was closed and the hey-day of regular concerts of traditional world music and Gamelan workshops came to an end.

Grave of Johannes van Bree(1801-1857), violinist, conductor in Felix Meritis and the Moses & Aaron church and

composer of a still popular Allegro for four string quartets. He was buried in the town centre but reburied here

in 1957; a new monument was made by Atze Haytsma.

Graves of the composers Cornelis Dopper, Willem Pijper, Julius Röntgen, Dirk Schäfer, Henriette Bosmans, Lex van Delden, Géza Frid, Guillaume Landré, Maarten Bon, the conductor and promotor of modern and contemporary music Reinbert de Leeuw †2020, and the opera singer Gré Brouwenstein.

Grave of the composer Alphons Diepenbrock, †1921.

The collection of the monumental Rijksmuseum includes a hundred or three musical instruments; some of them are assembled in room 08 (photos), others are exposed elsewhere among the works of art. There is multimedia Music Tour, in which musicians guide the visitor to those instruments and also to paintings that refer to music and musical life.