The recently deceased Thijs Bonger has more than earned his stripes in the field of classical music.
On 4 June, our very own programme maker Thijs Bonger passed away. Thijs had been making programmes for the Concertzender for over 20 years, and kept busy with that until the very end. His programmes characterised a combination of knowledge, skill and passion in every aspect of the process.
Thijs knew a lot about many music genres, but his expertise was the Classical Era. That’s why it makes sense for us to dedicate today’s programme to his contributions to the Concertzender. We’ll feature music associated with his programmes.
We’ll play three etudes by Juan Chrisóstomo Arriaga. The story behind those études is one of the greatest anecdotes we have in our collection. Thijs was determined to feature these pieces in his programme The Piano Étude. The challenge, however, was whether these pieces had ever been recorded. After endless searching online with no results—no CDs, LPs, or audio files—he decided to approach a pianist. And the rest is history: thanks to Thijs, these three études had their modern world premiere.
Another one of Thijs’ programmes was the Stubborn Student, in which he highlighted the relationship between teacher Haydn and student Beethoven. Beethoven boldly asserted that he had never learned anything from Haydn. However, Thijs skillfully illustrated with examples how this claim was far from true. Through his explanations, he encouraged us to rediscover and listen afresh to pieces we thought we knew well.
A contemporary of Beethoven, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, was a celebrated pianist, composer, and conductor throughout his lifetime, but his reputation dwindled after his death. According to Thijs, he never managed to shake off the dull Biedermeier image unfairly associated with him. In his long-running programme A Second Chance for Hummel, Thijs sought to restore Hummel’s rightful recognition. Hummel’s final piano concerto, which was published after his death, stands as a beautiful tribute to our programme maker.
Playlist
Juan Chrisóstomo Arriaga – Tres estudios and caprices. Toon Bierman, piano
Ludwig van Beethoven – Piano sonata no. 1 in f, dedicated to Haydn (movements 1, 2, 4). Igor Levit, piano
Johann Nepomuk Hummel – Piano concerto in F op. posth. London Mozart Players conducted by David Juritz; Howard Shelly, piano
