Johan Wagenaar - Aveux de Phèdre

Johan Wagenaar (1862-1941)

Aveux de Phèdre: scène tirée de la tragédie 'Phèdre' de Jean Racine pour soprano et orchestre, Op. 41 (1935)

Janny Zomer, soprano
Orchestra: Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Eri Klas


Johan Wagenaar was a Dutch composer and teacher. He studied at the Toonkunstmuziekschool in Utrecht, taking composition lessons from Richard Hol. On graduation in 1885, he immediately began his career as a teacher there, simultaneously studying the organ with Samuel de Lange. He replaced Hol three years later as organist of Utrecht Cathedral, earning renown for his Bach performances, and in 1896 succeeded him as director of the Toonkunstmuziekschool, retaining both of these posts until 1919. In 1892 he spent a year in Berlin (studying with Herzogenberg) and Vienna. Wagenaar conducted the Toonkunst choirs of Utrecht (1904-1927), Arnhem, Leiden and The Hague, also a male voice choir in Utrecht, often in large-scale choral or orchestral music by composers such as Berlioz and Mahler. In 1916 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Utrecht, and in 1919 was appointed director of the Royal Hague Conservatory, where he remained until 1937. Among his composition pupils were van Anrooy, Pijper, Bernard Wagenaar, Voormolen, Enthoven and Orthel.
Around 1900, together with Zweers and Diepenbrock, Wagenaar gradually re-established the role of the composer in Dutch musical life. He was active in lay musical clubs, and attempted to popularize music through humour. His cantata De schipbreuk, full of social and musical caricature, was performed widely in the Low Countries.
His wit is further displayed in the cantatas De fortuinlijke kist and Jupiter Amans and two operas, De doge van Venetië and De Cid, which resort to parody and satire, emphasizing the surface sentimentality and absurdity of so many Romantic operas. Wagenaar generally composed to suit the tastes of his own generation, rather than current fashions; as a result, his late works received little attention. Those pieces which have remained in the Dutch repertory (such as the overtures Cyrano de Bergerac and De getemde feeks, and Wiener Dreivierteltakt) are programmatic or theatrical in origin. The writing shows a remarkable feeling for tone-colour, with strong overtones of Berlioz and Strauss. A serious, arguably more original aspect of his talent appears in compositions such as the symphonic poem Saul en David and the vocal scene Aveux de Phèdre.
For his services to music Wagenaar was decorated six times by the Dutch Queen and twice by King Albert of Belgium: a striking contrast with his youth when, as one of six illegitimate children of a prominent aristocrat, he had known poverty and social discrimination.

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