Taking time to understand people when you move to a new country is possibly one of the greatest privileges you can have and it has been my pleasure to learn of the great love and affection that people in the Netherlands have for the composer, Harry Bannink.
The festival
Kicking off last weekend in Enschede, Phion and the Wilminktheater and Muziekcentrum hosted a festival paying tribute to Bannink, an artist with close connections to this part of the world. Born in Enschede in 1929, Bannink was a pianist, arranger and prolific composer of music for the theatre, film and television whose work spanned the 1950s post war era (the hey-day of the musical theatre and radio broadcasts) right up to the late 1990s, writing for television, perhaps most famously for the Dutch version of Sesame Street.
This is easy listening music which will appeal to those with a love of musical theatre; a never-ending stream of long melodic lines tumble over one another with music to make you smile. Any composer who puts tunes in the tuba always brings a smile to my face! Bannink’s use of the piano accordion in his music seems most natural, reminding me at times of the post war Parisian café music of Édith Piaf.
The arrangements
Much of Bannink’s music is not published – there is no official copy – so consequently many of the arrangements for this series of concerts are brand new as arranger Bob Zimmerman told me over lunch. “Bannink was a genius. He always did the right thing. He was never wrong. I don’t know what ‘the right thing’ means, but musically and dramatically, the music always works. The relationship with the words is just perfect. Bannink was not a man of big gestures. He reminds me of Ennio Morricone – how he could create music for the moment which no-one else in the world could have thought of. Bannink brings out the best in me.”
The musicians
Phion welcomed the internationally recognised baritone, Thomas Oliemans, fresh from a successful run in New York playing Papageno in the Metropolitan Opera House’s latest production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and his friend and mentor for many years, the blind pianist and accordion player, Bert van den Brink. However it is the relationship between these two artists and their joint respect for this most accessible of composers which fascinated me when I attended a rehearsal earlier last week.
The backstory
Van den Brink tells the story of how in 1992 as a teacher at Utrecht Conservatory, he was introduced to the teenage Oliemans by a colleague who was struggling with this “talented young pianist, violinist and singer who loved jazz and popular music. He was a mature young man – his voice was already broken, and he was all Sturm und Drang! We played some music one afternoon and I just told him to focus on one aspect of music so he could become really good. I asked him who his idol was and told him to visit him.”
It turns out Oliemans’ idol was Harry Bannink who lived just down the road. So like any good Dutch teenager, “Oliemans got on his bike and cycled the 7km to Bannink’s house and introduced himself! Bannink looked at some of Oliemans’ scores and they recognized each other’s musicality.” Oliemans visited Bannink for the next six or seven years, sharing their mutual love of music and to this day, regards Bannink as something of a grandfather figure in his musical life.
Bannink’s place in Dutch culture
While waiting for his moment in the afternoon rehearsal, Oliemans tells me more about these two towering figures in his early musical career. “Bannink was the first Dutch musical theatre composer who wrote at an internationally accepted standard, alongside greats like Rodgers & Hart, but with no desire or time to take his work outside the Dutch language. As a consequence, little of his work is known outside of the Netherlands. He was so busy writing music for television and other commissions that there was never time or the desire to make it big in the States.”
Oliemans is an intriguing and most talented musician, and his passion for Bannink’s music is infectious. This series of concerts with Phion, performing songs ranging from the quiet and intimate to some more cheeky numbers, sees Oliemans seated at the front of the stage beside his friend Van den Brink on the accordion, recreating those many evenings spent as a teenager. Their almost raw enthusiasm coupled with an utter devotion to authenticity is admirable. Oliemans revealed in a recent interview that he wanted to recreate the feeling of intimacy he had when performing these songs 25 years ago with just three string players, and only Bannink and his wife in the audience. Well this is exactly how it felt in the Wilminktheater today. I could sit and listen to this music all afternoon. I encourage you all to do the same.
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