The conductor and chief figure in Dutch early music scene has passed away at his home in Amsterdam. Nevertheless, he leaves us behind a rich recorded legacy.
Frans Bruggen, the Dutch conductor, baroque flautist and recorder player, breathed his last on Wednesday at the age of 79. A music expert of the 18th and 19th century, Bruggen was born in Amsterdam and studied musicology at the University of Amsterdam. The youngest of nine children, Bruggen claimed that boredom and tedium during the war when most Dutch schools were closed, he and his brother Hans often tried to play the recorder, which immediately took to his interest and he made it through the rest of the war years trying to play the instrument.
In 1960, he made his first appearance at the Freemason’s Hall at the Edinburgh Festival as a young virtuoso of the recorder for a morning recital during Peter Diamand’s period as Director of the festival and from here on, he developed into one of the greatest classical conductors of his time.
At the age of 21, he was appointed as a professor at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. At that time, he was the youngest musical scholars and went on to hold positions at Harvard University and Berkeley University. Not only a noted flautist and recorder player, he was the soloist in the baroque repertoire and conducted many European orchestras, which include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and English Chamber Orchestra.
Bruggen co-founded the Orchestra of the 18th Century, which now has over 60 members from 22 countries. The orchestra was formed to revive and experience again the expressivity of early music and specializes in composing music using genuine or historical instruments or replicas from the period. Some of Bruggen’s most famous recordings as a conductor included symphonies of Joseph Haydn, Beethoven and Franz Schubert and as a flautist included selections from Pieces de Clavecin en Concerts of Jean-Philippe Rameau. The orchestra assembles three to four times a year to go on a tour across both sides of the Atlantic.
Along with his period-instrument orchestra, he was appointed as a joint principal guest conductor of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightment from 1992 and was the director of the Netherlands Radio Chamber of Orchestra from 1991 – 1994. In 2013, Bruggen was nominated for a Gramophone Award for his recording of Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies, which is a perfect summation of his very unique interpretative abilities as a conductor.
Since almost a quarter of a century ago, every performance he gave was feared by fans to be his last. By the time he passed away, he needed a wheelchair but he continued to conduct until the end. In Zurich, he successfully tackled Mozart’s teenage masterpiece Mitridate.
Bruggen was the uncle of Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet member Daniel Bruggen, who is also a recorder soloist. He was married to art historian Machtelt Israels with whom he has two daughters, Eos and Zephyr. Hear some of his and other classic compositions on http://NEOSounds.com.
