News

Amanda Maier-Röntgen is Composer Of The Week

During June 3 to June 7, 2024, BBC Radio 3 dedicates “Composer of the Week” to Amanda Maier-Röntgen. Specifically:

• The episode exploring Maier’s career as a violin virtuoso, featuring Dr. Jennifer Martyn, is available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001znzl[1]
• The episode titled “In Bach’s footsteps” about Maier-Röntgen is available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001zmyx[2]
• BBC Radio 3 broadcasts the “Composer of the Week” series regularly, and you can stream it live or listen to past episodes on their website at https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3[4]
• The LibraryThing forum also has a discussion thread about the “Composer of the Week” series featuring Amanda Maier-Röntgen at https://www.librarything.com/topic/361203[3]

Biography of Amanda Maier-Röntgen

Swedish musician and musicologist Klas Gagge spent almost 10 years doing research on the life and works of Amanda Maier-Röntgen. Now, his magnificent piece of work has been published. Klas Gagge plays the cello, and is a member of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Stockholm and active in various chamber music projects. He is a collaborator on the Royal Academy of Music’s Living Heritage project. Klas Gagge’s book about Amanda Maier-Röntgen is part of the series of portraits of Swedish composers published by The Swedish Royal Academy of Music and Gidlund’s publishing house. More information on their website.

Wat Stilte Wil

A hitherto unexamined period in the lives of Julius Röntgen and Anna Witsen has been brought back into the spotlight by the well-known author Arthur Japin. “Wat Stilte Wil”, the title of the recently published historical novel, started more than 20 years ago in Japin’s mind as an investigation and first emerged as a film script. It has now been published in book form, published by De Arbeiderspers. The fictional story centers around the actual performance of Anna and Julius in the Odeon hall, which took place in November 1888. At that point in her life, Anna was allowed to resume her musical career after serious resistance from her father, Jonas Jan Witsen, member of the board of the Toonkunst Vereniging and descendant of the wealthy Witsen family. Anna’s life, like every woman of her time, would be in the service of her husband. She fights to keep her independence. Her brother, the painter Willem Witsen, was publishing the first edition of De Nieuwe Gids at that time. Ultimately, Anna does not find the strength to go her own way as a talented singer. Her tragic death in 1889 casts a shadow over the ‘Tachtigers’ movement. Japin vividly sketches the cultural environment of Amsterdam from that period and paints a beautiful picture of the era.

Increasing interest for the music of Amanda Maier

For several years there has been an increasing interest in the music of Amanda Maier (1853-1894), the first wife of Julius Röntgen. In her short life she left behind a small, high-quality oeuvre: over 25 works, of which a number of works have been lost (see work list Amanda Maier). After her marriage in 1880 her musical career came to an end and her compositional oeuvre fell into oblivion.

CD project with complete works of Amanda Maier

The Swedish CD label dB-Productions, conducted by Erik Nilsson, has been working on a project since 2015 in which all published and unpublished works by Amanda Maier are recorded on CD. The following CDs have been released so far:

Amanda Maier full. 1 (Maier Violin Concerto and Piano Quartet and Röntgen / Maier-Schwedische Weisen und Tänze for Violin and Piano)

• Amanda Maier full. 2 (violin sonata, 9 Stücke for violin and piano, 4 songs on lyrics by Wirsén)

• Anda Amanda & Julius (Maier-Preludes for piano solo and Röntgen / Maier-Zwiegespräche for piano solo)

• Amanda Maier vol.3 (piano trio, string quartet, St. Nicholas-Schwank, Klavierstück, Preludes)

• Couples in love and music: songs by Julius Röntgen and Amanda Maier and by Hans von Bronsart and Ingeborg von Bronsart

Amanda Maier jpc.de

CD project Mark Anderson

A few years ago, the American pianist Mark Anderson at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver discovered the music of Julius Röntgen. Since then, he has devoted himself to Röntgen’s oeuvre for piano solo, resulting in four CDs that have been released by Nimbus Records, including the following works: Czárdàs-Variaties op. 25, Hartmann Variations op. 38, Three Romances on. 32, Three Ballads and the Sonatas op. 2 and on. 10 and the Sonatine op. 63. The project will continue in the near future with recordings, together with his wife Michelle Mares, of compositions for two pianos.

Nimbus Records Julius Röntgen

Interview in The Pianist, 2019 No. 4

Read an interview in The Pianist magazine with Mark Anderson during his visit to Amsterdam in September 2019.