Conductor willem mengelberg was one of the most important figures in dutch musical life in the first half of the twentieth century. Under his direction, the concertgebouw orchestra acquired its perfection and international reputation.


Mengelberg;s commitment to unknown music by strauss, mahler, stravinsky and many others was legendary. Thanks to mengelberg, the tradition arose in our country to perform bach;s st matthew passion every year. Less attractive was the naivety with which mengelberg dealt with the occupier during the war years. Thus he declared in august 1940: ;i am now staying in the netherlands for some time to discuss dutch musical life and i hope to be able to do useful work for its further development.; mengelberg never understood why he was excluded from dutch musical life after the war. ;If i had done something i would understand it, but i did not interfere with anything!" these data come from the detailed explanation that mengelberg expert fritz zwart wrote for the mengelberg live booklet, the radio recordings.


This release with ten cds and a dvd was released on the q disc label, which has previously produced similar releases around mengelberg;s successors van beijnum and haitink. The new edition contains a number of registrations of great historical importance, such as the world premiere of the second violin concerto by béla bartók.


According to memories of pianist geza frid, it took mengelberg a lot of effort to rehearse this work, because he actually had no affinity with this masterpiece.

In the Ducoso storage room in the Diepenhorstlaan 10d in Rijswijk you will find nearly 1000 classical cd's, box sets and dvd's. Open every friday and saturday 12.00-15.30