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The composer Rudi Martinus van Dijk was born in Culemborg, the Netherlands, on 27th of March 1932. He studied with Hendrik Andriessen and Leon Orthel at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague and first came to the fore as a composer at the age of 19 when his Sonatine for piano was performed at the International Gaudeamus Music Week. Van Dijk emigrated to Canada in 1953 and two years later became a pupil of the American composer Roy Harris. The Canada Council of Arts enabled Van Dijk to further his studies in Paris with Max Deutsch, a pupil of Schoenberg, while concluding his piano studies with Kendall Taylor in London. During the 1950s and 1960s Van Dijk on a regular basis wrote music for and performed as pianist for radio and television for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Between 1964 and 1966 Van Dijk was active at the BBC in London involved particularly in educational television programs broadcast in many corners of the world including Australia. In 1966 Rudi van Dijk was appointed teacher of composition and piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. From that moment onward teaching became a part of his music life. In 1972 he was appointed teacher of composition and orchestration at Indiana University (USA), and in that same year took a similar post at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. It was not until 1985 that Van Dijk returned to Europe and after spending a year in Spain writing music he became composer in residence at Dartington Hall in Devon (UK). He now resides in both England and the Netherlands alternately and now devotes his time to writing music. Van Dijk has created an impressive oeuvre. His music has become increasingly popular throughout England and Europe. His Concertante for flute, percussion, harp and string orchestra (1963) was first performed in the Netherlands in 1965 by Koos Verheul, solo flautist with The Hague Philarmonic Orchestra along with members of the Radio Chamber Orchestra, and since then the Concertante has been performed numerous times throughout Canada and the United States. One of the highlights of Van Dijk's vocal music is The Shadowmaker (1977) commissioned and sung by the famous baritone Victor Braun in a performance with The Toronto Symphony under the baton of Mario Bernardi. Rudi van Dijk and Victor Braun's collaborations included concerts of music for voice and piano. September 1991 saw the Dutch premiere of the Violin Concerto (1984) at the Zeeuws Vlaanderen Festival with Polish-Dutch solo violinist Robert Szreder and the Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Jan Stulen. The national premiere of the Four Epigrams from 1961 occurred in September of 1993 with The Hague Philarmonic conducted by Jac van Steen. The Piano Concerto completed in 1994 was premiered in May of 1996 to acclaim with Geoffrey Douglas Madge as soloist and the North Netherlands Philarmonic with conductor Viktor Liberman.
Rudi van Dijk's music has drawn the attention of musicians and listeners in Great Britain. Hyperion recording artists The Raphael Ensemble, commissioned and performed the Sextet in England in 1998 and his Sonata for Violin and Piano was performed in recital at the Wigmore Hall and broadcast on BBC3 with Anthony Marwood and pianist Aleksander Madzar. London's Angika Dance Company for which he wrote Triple Hymn for soprano, cello, mridangam, tam-tam and tubular bell and based on a mantra from the Vedic Literature, received a highly successful premiere at the prestigious Spring Loaded Festival 2000 in London with the well known American soprano Lucy Shelton. The Angika Dance Company has since toured England performing Triple Hymn. As part of the International Chamber Series 2001 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Hyperion recording artists the Florestan Trio performed the premiere of Van Dijk's Piano Trio.
The number of compositions written as a result of the horrors of the Second World War is exceptionally large. Well known examples are Ein Ueberlebender aus Warschau (1947-1948) by Arnold Schoenberg,The War Requiem (1961) by Benjamin Britten, The First Symphony also named Versuch eines Requiems (1936-1945) by Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Message to the Living by Hans Henkemans,and last but not least, The Anna Frank Cantata (1984) by Hans Kox. In the early part of 2003, Rudi Martinus Van Dijk (1932–2003) finished his imposing 55 minute Kreiten’s Passion for Baritone Solo, Choir, Symphony Orchestra with text by Heinrich Riemenschneider (1924). The work was given its World Premiere on September 19, 2003, at the Tonhalle of Duesseldorf in performance with the internationally famous Baritone Andreas Schmidt, the Staedtischen Musikverein of Duesseldorf (rehearsed by Marieddy Rossetto) and the Duesseldorf Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Music Director John Fiore. Not only this concert, but also the next two performances of September 21 and 22 were sold out.
Bernard Jacobson writes:
I have been fortunate to hear a recording made on that occasion: the work exerts a mighty emotional impact, in a superb performance followed on the disc by more than five minutes of sustained and sober applause. For Rudi van Dijk’s surviving family and friends, it is some consolation that he was strong enough in September to travel to Germany for the premiere of Kreiten's Passion and to enjoy the greatest triumph of his career.
Compositions
Orchestra/chamber
orchestra/large ensemble
Sinfonia concertante (1960)
for piano and orchestra
pf-solo 3222 4330 3timp
perc str
duration: 15 min
commissioned by Walter Susskind
Ms.
Four Epigrams for orchestra
(1960)
3222 4331 3timp perc hp pf
str
duration: ca. 9 min
commissioned by the
Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation
Concertante (1963)
for flute, percussion and string
orchestra
fl-solo timp perc hp str
duration: ca. 12 min
commissioned by the
Toronto Chamber Orchestra
Ms.
Irish symphony (1990)
for orchestra
4343 4331 timp 4perc cel hp
pf str duration: 25 min
FCM, commissioned by the
National Orchestra of the
Republic of Ireland and
Colman Pearce (conductor)
Concerto for violin and
orchestra (1984)
vl-solo 3232 4231 perc hp pf
str
duration: 30 min
dedicated to Robert Szreder
Concerto for piano and
orchestra (1994)
pf-solo 3333 4331 timp
7perc hp str
duration: 24 min
FCM, commissioned by Han
Reiziger (VPRO)
dedicated to Bernard and Laura
Jacobson
Chamber music
Sonatina for piano (1951)
duration: 4 min
dedicated to Harry Holtman
Elegy (1954)
for violin and piano
duration: 7 min
commissioned by Carolyn
Gundy (Toronto, Canada)
Ms.
Ballad (1957)
for piano
duration: 8 min
commissioned by the
Confederation Life
Insurance Co. (Toronto,
Canada)
Ms.
Sonata (1957)
written in Toronto, Canada
for clarinet and piano
duration: 10 min
Ms.
Movement (1961)
for alto-saxophone and piano
duration: 6 min
written for Paul Brodie
(Toronto, Canada)
Le tombeau de Francis
Poulenc (1965)
for piano 4-hands or 2
pianos
duration: 6 min
3 Pieces (1969)
for piano
duration: 6 min
Ms.
Lament of a dying bird
(1974)
for clarinet
duration: 11 min 30 sec
dedicated to Maarten Brandt
Little dance (1977)
for piano
duration: 2 min
dedicated to his son Walter
Ms.
Incantation (1982)
for flute
duration: 5 min 53 sec
for Ann Fudge (Boston,
USA)
Sonata for violin and piano
(1995)
duration: 20 min
FCM, for Anthony Marwood
Sextet for strings (1997)
for 2 violins, 2 violas and 2 'cellos
Duration: 17 min
FCM, for The Raphael Ensemble ( London, England)
String Quartet (1998)
duration: 20 min
FCM, dedicated to his sons Felix and Walter
A touch of the blues (1998)
for piano
duration: 5 min
FCM, for Marcel Worms
Piano Trio (2001)
for piano, violin and 'cello
duration: 20 min
FCM, for the Florestan Trio
Pastorale for Violin and Piano (1955)
duration: 7'
for Carolyn Gundy
Bagatella for Piano (1969)
duration: 2'
Movement for Cello and Piano
(1988)
3 Pieces for Piano (1992)
duration: 6'
'Phantom'
'Enigma'
'Meditations'
for Jeanne
Sound Scape: 'To Break the
Silence of the Night' (1997)
for piano (left hand)
duration: 3'
In Old Dutch Style (1999)
for piano
duration: 20'
Vocal music
'A Dream' (1976)
for soprano, Flute and Piano
duration: 3'
Two Lieder (1957)
for soprano and piano
text: D, von Liliencron
duration: 5 min
for Teresa Stratas (Toronto,
Canada)
Ms.
I died for beauty (1965)
for soprano and piano
text: Emily Dickinson
duration: 3 min
Ms.
Christmas cantata 'Now is
the prophet's time'
for tenor, children's voices,
mixed choir and orchestra
2222 4220 timp perc 2pf org
str
text: George Johnston
duration: 20 min
commissioned by the
Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation - Radio
Ms.
Immobile Eden (1972)
for soprano, flute and piano
duration: 8 min 51 sec
commissioned by the Toronto
Lyric Arts Trio
(Canada)
The Shadowmaker (1978)
for baritone and orchestra
bar-solo 322 4331 6perc pf
str tape
text: Gwendolyn MacEwen
duration: 28 min
dedicated to Victor Braun
commissioned by the Canada Council of the Arts
Lied (1979)
for soprano, flute and piano
text: William Blake
duration: 3 min
Ms.
From the Book of Tao Te Ching
(1979)
for tenor and piano
duration: 10 min
for Peter Pears
Three Lieder (1980)
for soprano (or tenor)
duration: 10 min
Ms.
Two pieces with interlude
(1995)
for soprano, flute (piccolo and bass
flute) and piano
text: Percy Bysshe Shelley and
William Butler Yeats
duration: 12 min
FCM, for Trio Il Castello
Triple Hymn
for soprano, 'cello, midrangam,
tam-tam, tubular bell
duration: 30 min 30 sec
text: Mantra fro Vedic Literature
commissioned by British Arts Council
for Angika Dance Company
Kreiten Passion
for baritone, mixed choir and orchestra
duration: 54 min 7 sec
Text: Heinrich Riemenschneider
commissioned by The Duesseldorf Symphony
Music published by Donemus
Paulus Potterstraat 16
1071 CZ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
phone +31 (0)20 676 44 3
fax +31 (0)20 673 35 88
e-mail donemus@pi.net
www.rudimartinusvandijk.com
FCM: commission, stipend or other kind of financial support by the Fund for the Creation of Music
Ms.: Manuscript
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