Marius van Altena, born Marius Hendrikus Schweppe (10 October 1938)
is a Dutch tenor. He was one of the pioneers of
historically informed performance
Historically informed performance (also referred to as period performance, authentic performance, or HIP) is an approach to the performance of Western classical music, classical music which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of ...
of Baroque and Renaissance music. He has also sung Baroque opera, worked as conductor and as an academic teacher.
Career
Born in Amsterdam, Marius van Altena graduated from the
Conservatorium van Amsterdam
The Conservatorium van Amsterdam (CvA) is a Dutch conservatoire of music located in Amsterdam. This school is the music division of the Amsterdam University of the Arts, the city's vocational university of arts. The Conservatorium van Amsterdam ...
.
In 1973, he was the
Evangelist
Evangelist(s) may refer to:
Religion
* Four Evangelists, the authors of the canonical Christian Gospels
* Evangelism, publicly preaching the Gospel with the intention of spreading the teachings of Jesus Christ
* Evangelist (Anglican Church), a ...
in the first historically informed performance in the Netherlands of Bach's ''
St Matthew Passion
The ''St Matthew Passion'' (), BWV 244, is a '' Passion'', a sacred oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander. It sets the 26th and 27th chapters of th ...
''.
Johan van der Meer conducted the
Groningse Bachvereniging
The Groningse Bachvereniging was a Dutch semi-professional mixed choir, which existed from 1945 to 1989 and was known for its performances of Baroque music in historically informed performance. It was founded by Johan van der Meer and conducted by ...
, the
Vox Christi
Vox Christi, Latin for Voice of Christ, is a setting of Jesus' words in a vocal work such as a Passion (music), Passion, an Oratorium or a Cantata. Conventionally, for instance in Protestant music of the Baroque era, the vox Christi is set for a Ba ...
was
Max van Egmond
Max van Egmond (born 1 February 1936 in Semarang) is a Dutch bass and baritone singer. He has focused on oratorio and Lied and is known for singing works of Johann Sebastian Bach. He was one of the pioneers of historically informed performance of ...
, the other soloists were three boys of the
Tölzer Knabenchor
The Tölzer Knabenchor (Tölz Boys' Choir) is a world-famous Boys' choir, boys' choir named after the Upper Bavarian district town of Bad Tölz and based in Unterföhring near Bavarias capital Munich. Also associated with the choir is the Men's ch ...
,
René Jacobs
René Jacobs (born 30 October 1946) is a Belgian musician. He came to fame as a countertenor, but later in his career he became known as a conductor of baroque and classical opera.
Biography Countertenor
Born in Ghent, Jacobs began his musi ...
,
Harry Geraerts
Harry Geraerts (born 22 August 1945) is a Dutch tenor. His repertoire includes the great oratorios, baroque operas, ensemble music and Lieder, especially in the field of Renaissance and Baroque music.
Life
Born in Utrecht, Geraerts attended sch ...
, Michiel ten Houte de Lange, Frits van Erven Dorens and
Harry van der Kamp
Harry van der Kamp (born 1947 in Kampen) is a Dutch bass singer in opera and concert. Mostly active in Historically informed performance, he founded the Gesualdo Ensemble. He is also an academic voice teacher.
Singing career
Born in Kampen, va ...
.
Ton Koopman
Antonius Gerhardus Michael "Ton" Koopman (; born 2 October 1944) is a Dutch conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and musicologist, primarily known for being the founder and director of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir.
He is a professor ...
and
Bob van Asperen
Bob van Asperen (born 8 October 1947, in Amsterdam) is a Dutch harpsichordist, early keyboard instrument performer and conductor. He graduated in 1971 from the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he studied the harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt and the ...
played the organs.
The performance was recorded live. With van der Meer he performed and recorded Bach's ''
Mass in B minor'' in 1975 at the
Holland Festival
The Holland Festival () is the oldest and largest performing arts festival in the Netherlands. It takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theatre, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and architec ...
, the orchestra was
La Petite Bande
La Petite Bande is a Belgium-based ensemble specialising in music of the Baroque and Classical eras played on period instruments. They are particularly known for their recordings of works by Corelli, Rameau, Handel, Bach, Haydn, and Mozart.
Hi ...
with concert master
Sigiswald Kuijken
Sigiswald Kuijken (; born 16 February 1944) is a Belgian violinist, violist, and conductor known for playing on period and original instruments.
Biography
Kuijken was born in Dilbeek, near Brussels. He was a member of the Alarius Ensemble o ...
). In 1969 van der Meer conducted Bach's ''
St John Passion
The ''Passio secundum Joannem'' or ''St John Passion'' (), BWV 245, is a Passion or oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, the earliest of the surviving Passions by Bach. It was written during his first year as director of church music in Leipzi ...
'' in Groningen.
Van Altena sang the tenor part in several
Bach cantata
The cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, known as Bach cantatas ( German: ), are a body of work consisting of over 200 surviving independent works, and at least several dozen that are considered lost. As far as known, Bach's earliest can ...
s in the
''Das Kantatenwerk'' series, the project to record all the sacred cantatas for the label Teldec. His contributions included the first volume in 1972 with the
Tölzer Knabenchor
The Tölzer Knabenchor (Tölz Boys' Choir) is a world-famous Boys' choir, boys' choir named after the Upper Bavarian district town of Bad Tölz and based in Unterföhring near Bavarias capital Munich. Also associated with the choir is the Men's ch ...
(Chorus Master:
Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden
Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden (born 19 June 1937) is a German conductor, especially a choral conductor, and an academic teacher. He founded and conducted the Tölzer Knabenchor.
Life
Born in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia, Schmidt-Gaden studied conductin ...
), the
King's College Choir (Chorus Master:
David Willcocks
Sir David Valentine Willcocks, (30 December 1919 – 17 September 2015) was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambridg ...
) and the
Leonhardt-Consort Leonhardt-Consort, also known as the Leonhardt Baroque Ensemble, was a group of instrumentalists which its director, the keyboard player Gustav Leonhardt founded in 1955 to play baroque music. The Consort was active until around 1990, although some ...
conducted by
Gustav Leonhardt
Gustav Maria Leonhardt (30 May 1928 – 16 January 2012) was a Dutch keyboardist, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. He was a leading figure in the historically informed performance movement to perform music on period instruments.
Leo ...
. He recorded several cantatas for the following volumes, some with the Tölzer Knabenchor, others with the
Knabenchor Hannover
The Knabenchor Hannover (Hannover Boys' Choir) is a Boys' choir, boys choir founded in 1950 by Heinz Hennig, who served as conductor until the end of 2001. Since 2002, the conductor has been Jörg Breiding.
History and music
The Knabenchor Hann ...
(Chorus Master:
Heinz Hennig
Heinz Hennig (25 May 1927 – 29 January 2002) was a German choral conductor and an academic teacher, known for founding the Knabenchor Hannover in 1950 and leading it until 2001.
Career
Born in Burg bei Magdeburg, Heinz Hennig was educ ...
).
Van Altena has collaborated with the choir
Junge Kantorei, conducted by
Joachim Martini, singing in
Eberbach Abbey
Eberbach Abbey (German: Kloster Eberbach) is a former Cistercian monastery in Eltville in the Rheingau, Germany. On account of its Romanesque architecture, Romanesque and Gothic (architecture), early Gothic buildings it is considered one of the m ...
Monteverdi's ''
Marienvesper'' (1977, 1978, 1984), Bach's ''
Matthäuspassion
The ''St Matthew Passion'' (), BWV 244, is a ''Passion'', a sacred oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander. It sets the 26th and 27th chapters of the G ...
'' (1981) and ''
Messe in h-Moll'' (1982). In 1988, he was a soloist for a recording of sacred music by
Orlando di Lasso
Orlando di Lasso ( various other names; probably – 14 June 1594) was a composer of the late Renaissance. The chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school, Lassus stands with William Byrd, Giovanni Pierlui ...
, "Patrocinium musices", conducted by
Erik Van Nevel
Erik Van Nevel (1956) is a Belgian singer and conductor. He is the nephew of Paul Van Nevel.
He pursued instrumental and vocal studies at the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven, the Koninklijk Conservatorium (Brussels) and the Koninklijk Conservatori ...
. In 1992, he was part of a vocal ensemble which performed Renaissance
madrigal
A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th centuries) and early Baroque (1580–1650) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the ...
s, conducted by
Konrad Junghänel
Konrad Junghänel (born 27 February 1953) is a German lutenist and Conducting, conductor in the field of historically informed performance, the founder and director of the vocal ensemble Cantus Cölln.
Career
Junghänel studied at the Hochschule ...
, including works by
Andrea Gabrieli
Andrea Gabrieli (1532/1533Bryant, Grove online – August 30, 1585) was an Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance music, Renaissance. The uncle of the somewhat more famous Giovanni Gabrieli, he was the first internationally renowned ...
,
Ippolito Baccusi
Ippolito Baccusi (also Baccusii, Hippolyti) (c. 1550 – 2 September 1609) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance, active in northern Italy, including Venice, Mantua, and Verona. A member of the Venetian School of composers, he had a str ...
,
Girolamo Conversi,
Giovanni Ferretti,
Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi
Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi (c. 1554 – 4 January 1609) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. He is known for his 1591 publication of ''balletti'' for five voices.
Career
Gastoldi was born at Caravaggio, Lom ...
,
Giovanni de Macque
Giovanni de Macque (Giovanni de Maque, Jean de Macque) (1548/1550 – September 1614) was a Netherlandish composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque, who spent almost his entire life in Italy. He was one of the most famous Neapolitan comp ...
,
Luca Marenzio
Luca Marenzio (also Marentio; October 18, 1553 or 1554 – August 22, 1599) was an Italian composer and singer of the late Renaissance.
He was one of the most renowned composers of madrigals, and wrote some of the most famous examples of the f ...
,
Philippe de Monte
Philippe de Monte (1521 – 4 July 1603), sometimes known as Philippus de Monte, was a Flemish composer of the late Renaissance active all over Europe. He was a member of the 3rd generation madrigalists and wrote more madrigals than any other c ...
,
Cornelis Verdonck and
Hubert Waelrant
Hubert Waelrant or Hubertus Waelrant (last name also spelled Waelrand and Latinised name: Hubertus Waelrandus) ( – 19 November 1595) was a Flemish composer, singer, teacher, music editor, bookseller, printer and publisher active in 16th centur ...
. In 1995, he recorded six cantatas by
Dieterich Buxtehude
Dieterich Buxtehude (; born Diderich Hansen Buxtehude, ; – 9 May 1707) was a Danish composer and organist of the Baroque music, Baroque period, whose works are typical of the North German organ school. As a composer who worked in various vocal ...
, conducted by
Jos van Immerseel
Jos Van Immerseel (born 9 November 1945) is a Belgian harpsichordist, pianist and Conducting, conductor.
Van Immerseel studied Pipe organ, organ, piano and harpsichord at the Antwerp Conservatory under Flor Peeters, Eugène Traey and harpsicho ...
. He has performed as a member of the
Huelgas Ensemble
Huelgas Ensemble is a Belgian early music group formed by the Flemish conductor Paul Van Nevel in 1971. The group's performance and extensive discography focuses on Renaissance polyphony. The name of the ensemble refers to a manuscript of polyphoni ...
, conducted by
Paul Van Nevel
Paul Van Nevel (born 4 February 1946) is a Belgian conductor, musicologist and art historian. In 1971 he founded the Huelgas Ensemble, a choir dedicated to polyphony from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Van Nevel is known for hunting out lit ...
. In 1995 they recorded "Tears Of Lisbon", a collection of works by Portuguese Renaissance composers such as
Joaquim Pimentel
Joaquim Viana Pimentel (? in Cedofeita – 15 July 2003 in Lisbon
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within ...
,
Fontes Rocha Fontes can refer to:
Places France
* Fontès, a commune in the Hérault department
Portugal
* Fontes (Abrantes), a civil parish in the municipality of Abrantes
* Fontes (Santa Marta de Penaguião), a civil parish in the municipality of Santa Mart ...
,
Paulo Valentim
Paulo Angelo Valentim (20 November 1933 – 9 July 1984) was a Brazilian professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker for clubs in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.
Career
Valentim came ...
,
Manuel Mendes
Manuel Mendes (or Manoel Mendes; c. 1547 – 24 September 1605) was a Portuguese composer and teacher of the Renaissance. While his music remains obscure, he was important as the teacher of several of the composers of the golden age of Portu ...
,
Armando Machado,
Francisco Viana
Francisco Viana (1895 – 1945 in Lisbon) was a Portuguese guitarist and composer of fado
Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian ...
and
Fernando Tordo
Fernando Travassos Tordo (born 29 March 1948) is a Portuguese singer and songwriter. Since 2003, he has been a Commander of the Order of Merit, an honor bestowed on him by the Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio.
Considered one of the most proli ...
.
In the field of Baroque opera, he appeared at the Holland Festival in 1974 in
Agostino Agazzari
Agostino Agazzari (2 December 1578 – 10 April 1640) was an Italian composer and music theorist.
Life
Agazzari was born in Siena to an aristocratic family. After working in Rome, as a teacher at the Roman College, he returned to Siena in 1607, b ...
's ''Eumelio'' and in
Sigmund Theophil Staden
Sigmund Theophil Staden (6 November 1607 – 30 July 1655) was an important early German composer.
Staden was born in Kulmbach in the Principality of Bayreuth, son of Johann Staden, the founder of the so-called Nuremberg school. Based in N ...
's ''
Seelewig''. In 1980, he appeared in
Gluck
Christoph Willibald ( Ritter von) Gluck (; ; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire at ...
’s ''L'île de Merlin''. From 1980 to 1984 he participated in opera performances of the company Spectaculum in Vienna, including works by
Johann Joseph Fux
Johann Joseph Fux (; – 13 February 1741) was an Austrian composer, music theorist and pedagogue of the late Baroque era. His most enduring work is not a musical composition but his treatise on counterpoint, '' Gradus ad Parnassum'', which ha ...
, Emperor
Leopold I and
Francesco Bartolomeo Conti.
He has also been employed as a pedagogue in
Hague Conservatory
The Royal Conservatoire (, KC) is a conservatoire in The Hague, providing higher education in music and dance. The conservatoire was founded by King William I in 1826, making it the oldest conservatoire in the Netherlands. Since September 2021, t ...
and the
Tilburg Conservatory. He has worked as a conductor since 1985.
In 1999 and 2005 he was on the jury of the competition for Baroque instruments and singing of the festival
Musica Antiqua Bruges
The MA Festival Brugge, short for the festival Musica Antiqua Bruges in Bruges, Belgium, is a festival of early music and historically informed performances, started in 1960. The program includes concerts, master classes, conferences, visits in t ...
.
References
External links
*
Recordings by Marius van AltenaArkivMusic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Altena, Marius
Dutch tenors
Dutch male conductors (music)
Living people
1938 births
Singers from Amsterdam
Academic staff of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague
21st-century Dutch conductors (music)
21st-century Dutch male singers
21st-century Dutch singers
Conservatorium van Amsterdam alumni