![Julia Culp and Coenraad V](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Julia_Culp_and_Coenraad_V._Bos_circa_1915.jpg)
Coenraad Valentijn Bos (7 December 1875 - 5 August 1955) was a Dutch pianist, most notably as an accompanist to singers of
lied
In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French s ...
er.
[ His peers such as ]Gerald Moore
Gerald Moore Order of the British Empire, CBE (30 July 1899 – 13 March 1987) was an England, English classical music, classical pianist best known for his career as a Collaborative piano, collaborative pianist for many distinguished musicians. ...
considered him the doyen of accompanists in his day.
Life
He was born in Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
in 1875. He studied under Julius Röntgen
Julius Engelbert Röntgen (9 May 1855 – 13 September 1932) was a German-Dutch composer of classical music. He was a friend of Liszt, Brahms and Grieg.
Life
Julius Röntgen was born in Leipzig, Germany, to a family of musicians. His father, ...
and at the Berlin High School for Music.[Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed, 1954, Vol. I, p. 828, BOS, Coenraad v.] He decided early to become an accompanist, a field of which he made a special study.
On 9 November 1896, in the presence of the composer, and still a month shy of his 21st birthday, he accompanied the Dutch baritone Anton Sistermans
Anton Sistermans (5 August 18655 March 1926) was a Dutch baritone during the late 19th-early 20th century. He is particularly notable for interpretations of lieder and oratorios. During his career, Sistermans premiered important compositions by ...
at the premiere of Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...
' ''Vier ernste Gesänge
''Vier ernste Gesänge'' (''Four Serious Songs''), Op. 121, is a cycle of four songs for bass and piano by Johannes Brahms. As in his ''Ein deutsches Requiem'', the texts are compiled from the Luther Bible. Three songs deal with death and the t ...
'' in Vienna.
In 1899 he founded The Dutch Trio
The Dutch Trio (''Das Holländische Trio'') was a musical ensemble for chamber music, consisting of Coenraad Valentijn Bos (piano), Joseph Maurits van Veen (violin) and Jacques van Lier (cello), that was very successful in Berlin between 1899 an ...
(Das Holländische Trio) together with his Berlin-based countrymen Jacques van Lier
Jacques van Lier (24 April 1875 – 25 February 1951) was a Dutch-British cellist who spent most of his career in Germany and England. He played with the best musicians of his time and was well regarded as a teacher. He published many arrangemen ...
and Joseph Maurits van Veen. The pianotrio was active for over ten years and acquired fame throughout Europe.
For many years he worked with singers such as Raimund von zur-Mühlen
Baron Raimund von zur-Mühlen (sometimes "Raymond", "Raimund von Zur Mühlen") (10 November 1854 in Uusna Manor (''Neu-Tennasilm''), Viljandi Parish (now in Viiratsi Parish), Viljandi County, Governorate of Livonia – 11 December 1931 in Wist ...
, Elena Gerhardt
Elena Gerhardt (11 November 1883 – 11 January 1961) was a German mezzo-soprano singer associated with the singing of German classical lieder, of which she was considered one of the great interpreters. She left Germany for good to live in London ...
(USA tour 1920, Spanish tour 1928), Julia Culp
Julia Bertha Culp (6 October 188013 October 1970), the "Dutch nightingale", was an internationally celebrated mezzo-soprano in the years 1901–1919.
"You might describe Julia Culp as a connoisseur’s singer," Michael Oliver wrote in the ''Inte ...
, Frieda Hempel
Frieda Hempel (26 June 1885 – 7 October 1955) was a German lyric coloratura soprano singer in operatic and concert work who had an international career in Europe and the United States.
Life
Hempel was born in Leipzig and studied first at th ...
, Alexander Kipnis
Alexander Kipnis ( – May 14, 1978) was a Ukrainian-born operatic bass. Having initially established his artistic reputation in Europe, Kipnis became an American citizen in 1931, following his marriage to an American. He appeared often at the Ch ...
, Gervase Elwes
Gervase Henry Cary-Elwes, DL (15 November 1866 – 12 January 1921), better known as Gervase Elwes, was an English tenor of great distinction, who exercised a powerful influence over the development of English music from the early 1900s up u ...
, Ludwig Wüllner
Ludwig Wüllner (19 August 1858 – 19 March 1938) was a German concert and operatic tenor, as well as an actor and narrator. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and important stage performers of his time.
Life
Born in Münster, Wà ...
and Helen Traubel
Helen Francesca Traubel (June 16, 1899July 28, 1972) was an American opera and concert singer. A dramatic soprano, she was best known for her Wagnerian roles, especially those of Brünnhilde and Isolde.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, ...
(he accompanied Traubel on a world tour in 1945–46).[
He appeared with the 13-year-old ]Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name:
* Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor
** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England
** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to the v ...
in Berlin on 23 April 1929, and they exchanged inscribed photographs of themselves in commemoration of the event[ (Bos's gift to Menuhin is now in the Museum of the ]Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...
).
He recorded lieder of Brahms, Reger
Reger is a German surname, derived from the Middle High German ''reiger'', meaning "heron", likely referring to a tall thin person.''Dictionary of American Family Names''"Reger Family History" Oxford University Press, 2013. Retrieved on 16 January ...
, Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
, Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
and Wolf
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...
with Elena Gerhardt (1927–32). He figures prominently in the Hugo Wolf Society's Complete Edition 1931–38, accompanying Gerhardt, Herbert Janssen
Herbert Janssen (22 September 1892 in Cologne – 3 June 1965 in New York) was a leading German operatic baritone of the 20th century who had a career in Europe and the United States.
Biography
The son of a wealthy coal merchant of Swedis ...
, Gerhard Hüsch
Gerhard Heinrich Wilhelm Fritz Hüsch (2 February 190123 November 1984) was one of the most important German singers of modern times. A lyric baritone, he specialized in '' Lieder'' but also sang, to a lesser extent, German and Italian opera ...
, Alexandra Trianti and Elisabeth Rethberg
Elisabeth Rethberg ( Lisbeth Sättler; 22 September 1894 – 6 June 1976) was a German operatic soprano singer who was active from the period of the First World War through the early 1940s.
Early years
Rethberg was born Lisbeth Sättler ...
.
He died in Chappaqua, New York
Chappaqua ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of New Castle, in northern Westchester County, New York, United States. It is approximately north of New York City. The hamlet is served by the Chappaqua station of the Metro- ...
, United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
on 5 August 1955, aged 79.[
]
Legacy
He preserved his musical memories in "The Well-tempered Accompanist" (1949; co-written with Ashley Pettis).
External links
*
Coenraad V. Bos
at the New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bos, Coenraad Valentyn
Dutch classical pianists
Classical accompanists
Berlin University of the Arts alumni
People from Chappaqua, New York
People from Leiden
1875 births
1955 deaths