부산대학교 도서관

Evert Cornelis (1884-1931) was an organist who won the Prix d'excellence at the Amsterdam conservatoire in 1904. He was also a pianist and conductor. He played a central role in Dutch musical life over a period of two decades, holding many different positions during his career. This paper places Evert Cornelis within the history of performances of Alphons Diepenbrock's musical oeuvre. The first section addresses Cornelis's cooperation with the composer during the last ten years of his life. With the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Cornelis successfully performed Diepenbrock's recently finished symphonic song Die Nacht (Hölderlin) in October of 1911. Hungarian mezzo-soprano Ilona Durigo (to whom the work is dedicated) was the soloist. The primary conductor of the Concertgebouw was then Willem Mengelberg, with Cornelis as second-in-command from 1908 to 1919. Cornelis regularly conducted Diepenbrock's music, often combining performances with compositions by contemporary French composers. His programming reveals his interest in non-traditional repertoire, seldom performed in Dutch concert venues until that time. He shared this interest with Diepenbrock, who was significantly inspired by Debussy's music in his later years. Evert Cornells had a strong affinity for chamber music as well. He often performed as a pianist in chamber-music settings. His particular interest was to accompany singers. He worked with most of the vocalists to whom Diepenbrock had dedicated his songs and large-scale vocal works. Among these were the famous soprano Aaltje Noordewier-Reddingius and Ilona Durigo, mentioned above. His close cooperation with the Flemish soprano Berthe Seroen, who fled to the Netherlands in 1914 due to the outbreak of the First World War, continued for more than ten years. The war had a huge impact on Diepenbrock; he even stopped composing for a number of years. Both Cornelis and Diepenbrock were on the side of the Entente, a choice that strengthened their cooperation. After German attacks on Belgian towns, Diepenbrock not only supported refugees by participating in charity concerts but also expressed his indignation in several provocative, anti–German essays. This may explain why Mengelberg, who had done a lot for Diepenbrock as a conductor before the war, hardly performed any of his works from 1915 onwards. We need to consider the fame of the 'Seroen-Cornelis-concerts' in this context. The duo brought a huge and diverse song repertoire to the public. Many first auditions were included. These they performed over and over again throughout the country; when the war ended, they took them to Belgium, Germany, and France. This meant that Seroen and Cornells performed Diepenbrock's French songs regularly from 1916 onwards. Some of them, like the tragic Recueuillement (Baudelaire), acquired special meaning within the context of war. Berthe Seroen and Evert Cornelis, often in conjunction with Manx Loevenssohn on the cello, made Diepenbrock's Berceuse famous. This composition was set to a text by the Flemish poet Charles de Lerberghe. It was Diepenbrock's gift to Julie and Gérard Hekking for the birth of their daughter. From 1922 until his early death in 1931, Evert Cornells conducted the Utrecht City Orchestra (Utrechts Stedelijk Orkest, USO). He also assumed responsibility for the choirs (Toonkunstkoren) of Haarlem and Rotterdam and for the Dutch Bach Society (Nederlandse Bach-Vereniging). He involved the USO in his choral concerts, succeeding in creating big oratorio performances. Often these were premiere performances in the Netherlands. A thorough look at Comelis's concert programs for the years in question shows his conscious enriching of the repertoire through his focus on contemporary music, mainly by French and Dutch composers. It is worth noting that it was not only the works by composers of Diepenbrock's generation that were being performed. Composers just starting out, like Willem Pijper and Brtus van Lier, were also given the opportunity to hear their works played by the orchestra. Cornelis performed Diepenbrock's large-scale compositions approximately 50 times with the USO. These included several songs with orchestra, his music for the stage and his Te Deum. Cornelis benefitted from the Alphons Diepenbrock Fund (ADF), founded after the composer's death in 1921. Within a year of his death, the fund began publishing Diepenbrock's compositions that had not appeared during his lifetime. The orchestra toured the country regularly, introducing Diepenbrock's music to many areas outside of the main cities.