The Netherlands Bach Society () is the oldest ensemble for Baroque music in the Netherlands. The ensemble was founded in 1921 in Naarden to perform Bach's St Matthew Passion on Good Friday and has performed the work annually since then in the (Great Church or St Vitus Church).
The ensemble reached its 100th anniversary in 2021. In honor of the milestone, the Society started publishing a new and freely accessible recording every two weeks, including HD video of all 1080 works of Johann Sebastian Bach on YouTube, performed by members of the ensemble and guest musicians under the title All of Bach.
History De Nederlandse Bachvereniging was officially founded on 13 September 1921. Johan Schoonderbeek was one of the founding members and the first conductor.De dirigenten Matthäus-Passion in Naarden allesopeenrij.nl 2010 He had already conducted the St Matthew Passion with the Koninklijke Oratorium Vereniging Excelsior (Royal Oratorio Society Excelsior) in The Hague. The Netherlands Bach Society first performed the St Matthew Passion on Good Friday, 14 April 1922. Following the praxis of the period, the complete work was not performed. Performances of the work became a tradition which has since been retained.Matthew Gurewitsch: Playing the Numbers When Putting Voice to Bach The New York Times 15 April 2007
After Schoonderbeek's death in 1927, Evert Cornelis, conductor of the Utrechts Symfonie Orkest, took over and was the first to conduct the complete work. He died in 1931.
His successor was , who was also the organist of the church. He established regular performances of the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor from 1931 until shortly before his death in 1965, attracting listeners from the Netherlands and abroad. He studied facsimiles and tried to keep close to the composer's intentions.Anthon van der Horst (Conductor) bach-cantatas.com 2001 In contrast Willem Mengelberg conducted a shortened version of the St Matthew Passion regularly on Palm Sunday in the Concertgebouw, taking a romantic approach with choirs of 450 singers. Nevertheless the performances in Naarden and Amsterdam were initially similar, because orchestra players of the Concertgebouworkest and soloists were the same.
Charles de Wolff succeeded Van der Horst in 1965. During this period the Concertgebouw tradition was continued by Eugen Jochum. The historically informed performance, initiated by Nikolaus Harnoncourt among others, won friends within the Netherlands Bach Society, who pursued performances with smaller ensembles on period instruments. Therefore De Wolff left the Bach Society in 1983, to work with the Bachkoor Holland.Charles de Wolff (Conductor, Organ) bach-cantatas.com 2001
From 1983 until 2018, Jos van Veldhoven was the artistic director and conductor.
Shunsuke Sato became artistic director in June 2018 and resigned from the position in June 2023.
Program Since 1983 the Netherlands Bach Society has a group of instrumentalists and singers specialized on music of the 17th and 18th century. The Bach Society performs about 50 concerts a year, concentrating on works of Bach and his family, his contemporaries and predecessors, such as Buxtehude, Carissimi, Charpentier, Grandi, Handel, De Koninck, Kuhnau, Mazzocchi, Monteverdi, Padbrué, Ritter, Scheidt, Schein, Schütz, Sweelinck, Telemann and Weckmann.
The artistic director from 1983 to 2018 was Jos van Veldhoven, who conducts about half of the concerts. Guest conductors have included Gustav Leonhardt, Paul McCreesh, Philippe Herreweghe, Frans Brüggen, Iván Fischer and Masaaki Suzuki. To keep the experience of the St Matthew Passion "fresh not only for himself but also for the players and for audiences", guest conductors have been invited every other year. Some of them conducted the work for the first time in Naarden, such as Ton Koopman and René Jacobs. Atzo Nicolai, minister of the Netherlands who regularly attends, stated: "St. Matthew’ during Holy Week is bigger in the Netherlands than Messiah at Christmas anywhere else".
List of conductors of The Passion
1922–1925: Johan Schoonderbeek 1926–1927: Siegfried Ochs 1929–1930: Evert Cornelis 1931–1959: Anthon van der Horst 1958: Felix de Nobel 1959–1964: Anthon van der Horst 1965-1983: Charles de Wolff 1984: Jos van Immerseel 1985: Ton Koopman 1990: René Jacobs 1991: Philippe Herreweghe 1992: Ton Koopman 1993: Jos van Veldhoven 1994: Iván Fischer 1995: Gustav Leonhardt 1996: René Jacobs 1997: Jos van Veldhoven 1998: Sigiswald Kuijken 1999: Hans-Christoph Rademann 2000-2001: Jos van Veldhoven 2002: Gustav Leonhardt 2003: Marcus Creed 2004: Jos van Veldhoven 2005: Masaaki Suzuki 2006: Jos van Veldhoven 2007: Richard Egarr 2008: Jos van Veldhoven 2009: Lars Ulrik Mortensen 2010: Jos van Veldhoven 2011: 2012: 2013: 2014: Jos van Veldhoven 2015: Stephan MacLeod 2016: Jos van Veldhoven
Recordings The ensemble recorded, among others, in 1998 Bach's St Matthew Passion, conducted by Jos van Veldhoven, with Gerd Türk as the Evangelist, Geert Smits as Vox Christi, Johannette Zomer, Andreas Scholl, Hans Jörg Mammel and Peter Kooy,Bach: Matthäus-passion / Veldhoven, Netherlands Bach Society arkivmusic.com 1998 released on Channel Classics Records.
References
External links
All of Bach website with a growing number of Bach recordings by the Netherlands Bach Society and guest musicians De Nederlandse Bachvereniging (Choir & Baroque Orchestra) bach-cantatas.com
Matthew Gurewitsch: Playing the Numbers When Putting Voice to Bach The New York Times 15 April 2007