Henriëtte Bosmans - String Quartet

Henriëtte Bosmans (1895-1952)

Quartet voor twee violen, altviool en violoncel (1927)
Allegro molto moderato - Lento - Allegro molto

Utrecht String Quartet


Henriëtte Bosmans was a Dutch pianist and composer. Her father, Henri Bosmans, had been principal cellist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, while her mother, Sara Benedicts, taught piano for 40 years at the Amsterdam Conservatory. Henriëtte studied the piano with her mother, gaining a piano teaching certificate cum laude from the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Toonkunst in Utrecht at the age of 17. By the 1920s her career as a pianist was firmly established. She appeared with leading European conductors such as Monteux, Mengelberg and Ansermet, with a repertory including Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Grieg, Franck and Debussy. Between 1929 and 1949 she performed 22 times as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. She was also active in a number of chamber music ensembles.
She began composing in her teens, studying harmony and counterpoint with Jan Willem Kersbergen and, later, instrumentation with Cornelis Dopper (1921--1922). Many of her works were inspired by musicians with whom she performed. Her friendships with the cellists Marix Loevensohn and Frieda Belinfante resulted in several works for cello, including two concertos and Poème for cello and orchestra. Until 1927 her music was characterized by broad, lyrical lines, with clearly discernible Romantic influences. In the years she studied with Pijper (1927--1930), her style quickly became less Romantic and the instrumentation more transparent and colouristic, suggestive of the techniques and atmosphere of Debussy and Ravel. The Concertino for piano and orchestra, which was selected for the ISCM festival in Geneva in 1929, is harmonically related to Debussy. In 1934 Bosmans became engaged to the violinist Francis Koene, who died the following year. The Concertstuk for violin and orchestra, intended for Koene, was given its first performance by Louis Zimmerman in 1935 with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Mengelberg. It received many performances at home and abroad, including the USA. Koene's death, together with the impending war, were probably the main reasons that Bosmans stopped composing until after the war. During the war Bosmans refused to become a member of the Kultuurkamer, which was required of all Dutch musicians. At the end of August 1942, performance of her music was banned. She earned an income playing in private concerts. After the war Bosmans concentrated almost solely on vocal compositions. She wrote the passionate Doodenmars ('March of the Dead') to a text by Clara Eggink, and a more hopeful orchestral song, Lead, kindly light (1945), to a poem by Cardinal John Henry Newman, first performed on 3 November 1945 by the soprano Jo Vincent and the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Adrian Boult. In the last years of her life Bosmans formed a duo with the French singer Noëmie Perugia, who inspired her to write a large number of songs, mostly on French texts. Her songs vary strikingly in character and have a high degree of expressive tension. Many are narrative and ballad-like, the music artfully underlining the text. She was equally skilled in setting both French and German poetry, such as Heine's Das macht den Menschen glücklich. After the war she also regularly contributed articles on music to various Dutch newspapers and periodicals. She received a posthumous knighthood.