Henri Adrien Marie
Verbrugghen (1873 - 1934)
Birth: 1
August 1873, Brussels, Belgium
Death: 12
November 1934, Northfield, Minnesota,
United States of America Henri Verbrugghen, musician, was born on 1 August 1873 in Brussels, only son
of Henri Joseph Verbrugghen, textile manufacturer, and his wife Elisa, née
Derode. He made his début at the age of 9. With the support of Eugène Ysaÿe and
Joseph Wieniawski, Henri overcame parental determination that he study medicine
and in 1886 entered the Royal Conservatoire of Music of Brussels, graduating
with first prize in 1889. Having visited London
with Ysaÿe in 1888, Verbrugghen gave violin recitals in England, but declined to make a world tour with Amy Sherwin in 1890 and
worked mainly in Belgium
as an orchestral violinist. From 1893 he played intermittently with the new Scottish
Orchestra Company at Glasgow,
becoming concertmaster and assistant conductor under (Sir) Frederic Cowen in
1903. Verbrugghen played with summer orchestras in Wales
at Llandudno (1895-97)—where he married the singer Alice Emma Beatrice Beaumont
on 21 September 1898 in
the parish church—and Colwyn
Bay (1898-1902).
Appointed professor of violin, chamber music, orchestra and opera at the
Glasgow Athenaeum in 1904, he was also professor of violin at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin, and appeared as soloist with the
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. For four seasons from 1903 he was concertmaster
for the Queen's Hall Orchestra summer promenade concerts in London under (Sir) Henry Wood. His interest in conducting stimulated by Ysaÿe, Verbrugghen
studied closely the techniques of the conductors under whom he played, among
them Saint-Saëns, Lamoureux and Kes. He appeared often as a soloist and in 1907
gave the English première of the Sibelius concerto; he also played in string
quartets, forming his own in 1903.
In 1911 he was appointed conductor of the Glasgow Choral
Union. Although he conducted in Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Munich and St Petersburg,
his greatest success was a five-day Beethoven Festival with the London Symphony
Orchestra and the Leeds choir in 1914. Chosen directly from 173 applicants by Ambrose Carmichael, in
1915 Verbrugghen was selected as foundation director of the New South Wales
State Conservatorium of Music for a term of five years. He reached Sydney in August,
followed by his wife and family next February. His early staff appointments
included Roland Foster, Alfred Hill, Frank Hutchens, Cyril Monk and Arundel Orchard. An
inspiring teacher, Verbrugghen himself took classes in advanced chamber music,
the diploma, the select choir and the students' orchestra. He was determined to
establish an institution of international standing and one in the European
rather than the English musical tradition. His energy and charm persuaded the government to bring out
the other members of the Verbrugghen String Quartet and to provide musical
scholarships. The quartet gave twenty-four concerts each year (the entire
corpus by Beethoven being always included) and Verbrugghen made introductory
talks a popular feature of these performances. He also established a symphony
orchestra of 45 members (96 after three years) which rapidly acquired an
outstanding reputation and became the New South Wales State Orchestra. It
toured New Zealand, Melbourne and Adelaide, as
well as giving numerous concerts in Sydney
and at the conservatorium. In 1921 the orchestra gave 180 concerts, most of
which Verbrugghen conducted. An instance of his drive and his passion for
Beethoven (a London
critic had called him 'the Beethoven conductor par excellence') was the
thirteen performances of the Missa Solemnis that he directed over three
years.
Verbrugghen acquired a few enemies (he insisted, for
instance, on proper decorum at concerts) and by 1921 his orchestra was in
financial difficulties when John Storey's government decided to
withdraw support unless substantial funds were guaranteed by public
subscription. A Melbourne fund was established
under Sir James Barrett and the New South Wales fund was
directed by Ernest Wunderlich. That
year Thomas Mutch, the minister of
public instruction, offered a three-year extension of Verbrugghen's
directorship at £1500 a year and a maximum fee of £1500 annually as conductor (£20
per concert). The proposed fees proved unacceptable to Verbrugghen: he had
received 'not one penny piece' for conducting and felt that the government did
not want the director to earn more than a senior bureaucrat. He took extended leave in 1922, visiting Britain and the United States of America. After
conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, he was invited by the chairman of
the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra to be one of five guest conductors for the
1922-23 season. Within two months he was offered a three-year contract as
permanent conductor at a salary of $25,000. Negotiations with the New South Wales
government continued, but agreement could not be reached. Verbrugghen formally
resigned his Sydney
position late in 1922 and began a successful nine-year term with the
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra; the other members of his quartet joined him. As in Sydney,
he broadened the repertoire with works by Stravinsky, Honegger and Bloch,
sometimes to the outrage of his subscribers; he often reduced the strings when
conducting Beethoven in the interests of authentic balance. His performances
were said to be of the 'cerebro-dramatic school of conductors' and he was
described as a 'flaming little volcano' on the podium. Verbrugghen's interest
in novelty and experiment led him to include jazz-influenced works in his
concerts and to employ a pillowslip full of peanut shells to achieve a
particular sound in his orchestration of Hill's song, 'Waiata Poi'. He made few
solo appearances for he found the concomitant nervousness debilitating. With an elegant, waxed moustache and 'dark eyes so bright
and keen that they convey a sense of inextinguishable youth', Verbrugghen was
'one of those short men who produce a tall effect on the beholder'. A colleague
described him as genial in temperament, but capable of being domineering when
the occasion demanded it. He had a fund of stories, 'some decidedly Rabelaisian
in character', and a surprising fondness for horses and their breeding. A man
of wide knowledge with highly cultivated tastes, he was especially
well-informed on painting and sculpture. 'Most performers', he once observed,
'practise too much and think too little. Knowing history, philosophy and other
things helps make a good musician'. On 26 October 1931 Verbrugghen suffered a cerebral
haemorrhage and collapsed during a rehearsal. He recovered sufficiently to head
the music department of Carleton College, Northfield,
Minnesota, but never directed his
orchestra again. Survived by his wife, daughter and three sons, he died of
hypertensive renal disease on 12 November 1934 at Northfield and was cremated.
Hill - Waiata Poi: A Maori song-dance (Rec.: 5.05.1926)
Guiraud - 'Piccolino' Melodrama (Rec.: 5.05.1926)
Massenet - 'The Virgins Last Sleep' prelude (Rec.: 5.05.1926)
Delibes - 'Coppelia' ballet: prelude et mazurka (Rec.: 5.05.1926)
Weber - 'Freischutz' Overture (Rec.: 5.05.1926)
Berlioz - Roman Carnival (Rec.: 11.05.1928)
Wagner - 'Tannhauser' Overture (Rec.: 11.05.1928)
Minneapolis Symphony
Orchestra
Conductor: Henri Verbrugghen
Прилагаются сканы и статья газеты "New York Times" от 22.02.1918, посвященная Вербрюгену.
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