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Nederlands Kamerkoor

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The Nederlands Kamerkoor (Netherlands Chamber Choir) is a Dutch choir with Utrecht as its administrative base, which gives concerts in various Dutch cities. Felix de Nobel founded it in 1937 as Chorus Pro Musica, to sing Bach cantatas for the broadcasting association VARA. In 1939 it performed in public for the first time in Haarlem, under the name Nederlandsch Kamerkoor. After the Second World War it toured England in 1948, Perugia in 1949 and in 1951 the Edinburgh Festival. That same year it received its first government subsidy, which became a permanent subsidy in 1953.

Music and breakthrough

De Nobel stopped in 1972. His successor Hans van den Hombergh brought more historical performance practice to the choir, and Kerry Woodward led it from 1977 to 1980. After that it had no permanent conductor until 1988 and worked with guest conductors from the early music movement, such as Gustav Leonhardt, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Ton Koopman, Christopher Hogwood and William Christie. In 1988 Uwe Gronostay came as chief conductor, until 1997. Since 2015 Peter Dijkstra has been chief conductor.

Influence

Composers such as Francis Poulenc, Frank Martin, Rudolf Escher, Hendrik Andriessen, Mauricio Kagel, John Tavener and Henk Badings wrote for the choir. Its records include the Requiem in D minor by Mozart, the Mass in B minor by Bach and Via Crucis. The choir shows how the Netherlands, from Bach to new work, built a choral culture of its own.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to the Requiem in D minor, KV. 626 and notice how the voices come together softly and broadly at the beginning, and how clearly you can follow each voice separately.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists