1954 THE CONCERT OF FINALISTS

The review that was published in De Tijd with respect to the Benelux Vocal Competition gala Concert of Winners perfectly summarized what this and all flowing concerts in the years to come was and were about: the festive atmosphere of an evening out that was closer to a celebration than to a formal concert. That the program was haphazardly composed, rather long, and inevitably slightly uneven given the various specializations of the singer didn’t really matter much in this celebration of young talent that had grown dear to the local audience in the Casino Theater Den Bosch. Just how fond the inhabitants of Den Bosch were of their winners was shown by the fact that the Gala Concert was sold out. Wrote the reporter:

‘The informal atmosphere culminated into the point where Henriëtte Willems started answering the ongoing ovations with blowing kisses back to the audience, while spontaneously embracing the slightly surprised conductor Hein Jordans.’ (‘Concert met Prijswinnaars,’ De Tijd, September 27, 1954)

With Willems' charms evident, the critic embarked on an evaluation of her singing, which balanced her strong points with her weaker ones:

‘Hers is an interesting timbre, although it sometimes fails her. Her dramatic impact is evident, but not very subtle. In terms of allure she easily outclassed all her competitors. ’ (‘Concert met Prijswinnaars,’ De Tijd, September 27, 1954)

Another winner proved Annette de la Beije from Heemstede, who conquered the hearts of the audience with ‘Un bel dì vedremo’ from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, which we can present here because she gave her IVC concert arias to us shortly before she passed away, on March 17, 2014. One critic wrote of her appearance the following words:

'We have delighted in the crystal clear, very melodious and musical soprano Annette de la Bije, who who doubtlessly will become one of our greatest sopranos. She sang the ‘Incarnates est’ from Mzart’s ‘Mass in C’ and an aria from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.’ (‘Slotconcert van het Benelux-Vocalistenconcours,’ Unidentified Newspaper cutting, September 27, 1954)

Duly noted were also the beauty of the voices of Hans Wilbrink and Aukje Karsemeyer-de Jong. The latter was thought to be at an advantage, since she had elaborate stage experience and was wholly at ease on stage, where the others were clearly nervous, and searching for the right pose and attitude. De Tijd further thought that Frans Meulemans had a fine technique, although he still had a thing or two to learn in terms of interpretation, given his hurried rendition of Figaro’s aria from Il barbiere di Siviglia. Most peculiarly, another critic thought he scored a public triumph with the same aria.

The Brabant Orchestra appeared gracious and detailed in its solo pieces by Bach and Beethoven, which confirmed the standing that the orchestra had acquired under the tenure of Chief Conductor Hein Jordans. The latter also sustained the nervous young soloists by his clear beat, said Piet Pijnenborg. Naturally, the program was improvised at last minute and brought to the light of day by inexperienced singers, some of who sang here for the first time ever before an audience of sorts, except perhaps Dutch radio staple Aukje Karsemeyer-de Jong and concerting artist since some years Annette de la Bije. An unidentified critic summarized the general atmosphere nicely in the following conclusion to his article:

‘Snobs may say that so many styles and excerpts can never be artistically sound. There against are those for whom music is first and foremost beauty of sound long before it can become a problem of any sort. These people shall tell you that this evening was one of precious memories, an evening so full of joy to the eye, the ear and the heart that one would wish for it to be repeated very soon. Art loving Den Bosch has proven yesterday that it is drawn to beauty by a magnetic field.’ (‘Sterren straalden in het Casino,’ Unidentified Newpaper cutting, September 27, 1954)

REMINISCENSES

First Prize Winner Annette de la Bije

Being a performing couple, Annette de la Beije and her husband since 1951, Jan de Man, frequently discussed future possibilities. Scraping Lieder concerts together was not easy, recalls De la Bije, and securing auditions before unwilling conductors was even more difficult. Therefore, somewhere in 1954, her husband suggested that she participated in the International Vocal Competition in Den Bosch (then called Benelux Competition), that was due in September 1954. De la Bije agreed, and when the day arrived to travel to Den Bosch, she went there well prepared,a lthough she had no idea what to await in terms of competition. De la Bije:

‘You arrived there with a lot of singers. You had to sing song, opera and oratorio. If you made it through to the next round, you were already on the verge of the finals. That was of course the main round. The jury chose what to sing from a list of repertoire submitted by yourself’.

Annette de la Bije on het IVC Participation (Dutch Language) © 401Dutch Divas / RS / Augustus19–October 12, 2013

De la Beije had not expected her victory (which she shared with Aukje Karsemeyer-De Jong among sopranos, and Hans Wilbrink and Frans Meulemans in the bass/baritone category). She had previously only locally participated in a singing contest in Scheveningen, at age 18. The Benelux Competition was her first serious attempt to force a breakthrough. At that moment she had no clue where she stood as an artist, since her ‘career’ at the time consisted primarily of occasional church and Sunday concerts in and around The Hague, and even those performances were then hard-fought. De la Bije:

‘I was dubbed an ‘undiscovered talent’. That is no longer possible today, but at the time winning the IVC from scratch had a huge impact. Before I won, I had to beg for one or another conductor to be able to audition, and now, suddenly they came to you! The very evening when it was announced that I had won, choir director Lodewijk de Vocht awaited me in front of my dressing room, inviting me to sing Brahms’ Deutsches Requiem with him in Brussels. I jumped on the offer and then he mentioned my fee, a huge sum in my eyes! I gasped: ‘So much?!’, which made my impressario, a certain Mrs. Scheel, take me aside. She lectured me on good backstage manners, with rule Nr. 1 being to never show any emotion at the hight of any given fee. I should merely nod and pretend it was normal. Well, that lesson was not wasted on me!’

Reminiscences of Dutch soprano Lenie Moonen

As a member of the audience, Dutch soprano Lenie Moonen attended all 50 IVC competitions since 1954. Having been born in 1921, she might actually have participated in the competition, but she had a full time job at the time and never considered making a career, even though she studied in private with such famous fellow students as Elisabeth Cooymans. In the filmed interview provided here, Miss. Moonen recalls the first Benelux Vocal Competition, and reflects on the 49 years that have passed since (Dutch only). Her death in 2014 prevented her from completing the full circle of attending all 50 years from the first competition, but fortunately we have been able to preserve her memories here.

Julius Patzak on the Benelux Vocal Competition

As a member of the Jury, the world famous Austrian tenor Julius Patzak left his reminiscences to the journalist of an unidentified Brabant newspaper clipping. The journalist noticed Patzak's 'delightful personality', and introduced him as a friendly chap, in good spirits and uncomplicated.

It wasn't the tenor's first visit to Den Bosch, since he had good memories of a 1950 performance in Franz Schmidt's Das Buch mit den sieben Siegeln there, conducted by Rob Gevers. The existing contacts may have helped to secure his participation in the Benelux Vocal Competition, in addition to which Patzak was a particular favorite of the Dutch public. With Mengelberg conducting, he sang in Mahler's 'Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen', in Bach's St.–Matthew's Passion and Haydn's the Seasons. In addition Patzak had occasionally appeared on Dutch Radio broadcasts. At the time of writing, he was about to make his English language debut in London in The tales of Hofmann by Offenbach. In Vienna he was looking to a particularly busy season ahead, as the Viennese Opera house was about to reopen and he was expected to sing there his celebrated Florestan in Beethoven's Fidelio, the great Mozart tenor parts, as well as Schmidt's Das Buch mit den sieben Siegeln.

To the credit of the first organizers of the Benelux Vocal Competition, it should be mentioned that they had managed to secure a Jury that had the necessary weight to be taken serious among musicians, as well as among the press. This has remained a keystone to the organization ever since. When it was over, Patzak gave a balanced evaluation of the first competition, which had given him a few new insights on singing, said the tenor:

'Among the young soloist there are very promising voices. However, I was surprised to see them appear in such unsuited repertoire, among which were arias that many an experienced singer would not approach without some hesitation, and when, then only with the utmost care. I can understand their youthful enthusiasm, but technical difficulties in singing one should not solve by without knowing what one is doing with his throat.'

'The beautiful, more simple art song did not come by often in the contest, to my regret. This is due to a lack of experience and knowledge. Young singer's look too much to their older colleagues, and then also rather to the most successful ones. They want to be like them and just copy their repertoire, which can be a hazardous undertaking.

Singing is a difficult profession, which includes many risks. Only with profound knowledge, gained in years of study and routine, can one hope to bypass the difficulties and master the art. The bragging enthusiasm of youth was often the case for a premature ending of many a promising voice.'

Patzak had a final word of consolidation though, since he readily admitted that he and all those famous colleagues had all made exactly the same youthful mistakes once, and they still had made it to there they were now. Thus the tenor left Den Bosch, on his way to the challenges awaiting him in Vienna in a season that still ranks among the highlights of his career.