Pijper, Willem

Willem Frederik Johannes Pijper – Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

(b. Zeist, September 8, 1894 – d. Leidschendam, March 18, 1947)

(1927)

Preface
Willem Pijper was a Dutch composer, music journalist, and teacher who rose from a humble background to become a central figure of musical life in the Netherlands. Along with his contemporary Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967), Pijper is now considered the most important Dutch composer in the first half of the twentieth century.

Pijper was born in a village near Utrecht to working-class parents. A sickly child, he was educated chiefly at home. Pijper wanted to study botany during his brief stint in high school but instead entered the Utrecht Toonkunst Muziekschool in 1911. Here Pijper studied composition with Johan Wagenaar (1862-1941). He took a final examination in music theory in 1915 but continued to study composition privately for a further three years.

Pijper received national recognition with the premiere of his First Symphony in 1918. Enthusiastically taken up by conductor Willem Mengelberg (1871-1951) because of its Mahlerian style, its success began a period of professional growth for Pijper. From 1918-1921 he taught music theory at the Amsterdam College of Music and from 1917-1923 he contributed articles to the Utrechtsch Dagblad. Pijper’s sharply worded criticisms of what he perceived as low performance standards and lazy artistic decisions caused so much trouble for conductor Jan van Gilse (1881-1944) that he resigned from his post with the Utrecht Stedelijk Orkest in 1922. Ironically, this scandal gained Pijper widespread acclaim for his writings as well as his music. Pijper also represented the Netherlands at the 1922 inaugural meeting of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) in Salzburg, afterwards helping establish the Dutch section of the same organization.

Yet Pijper suffered his first professional setback in 1922 as well. Though an admirer of the First Symphony, Mengelberg refused to perform Pijper’s Second Symphony. Its musical language was more complex and concentrated and Mengelberg claimed to understand nothing about the work. Its overt but impractical homage to Mahler’s instrumentation, calling for a solo tenor horn, 4 harps, 3 pianos, 6 mandolins, organ, and a steel plate, did nothing to endear it to potential performers either. Pijper eventually conducted the premiere himself on 2 November 1922. It was a failure and Pijper’s relationship with Mengelberg was never restored. …

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