Concert Pianist

Donald Macleod traces Bosmans’s trajectory as a pianist, and her short-lived engaged to a fellow musician.

Henriëtte Bosmans seemed destined for a life in music from the moment of her birth, in 1895. Her father was the principal solo cellist in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and her mother a piano teacher at the Amsterdam Conservatory. Bosmans developed a flourishing career and won international success with her Concert Piece for Violin and Orchestra. As a concert pianist she performed alongside conductors such as Ernest Ansermet and George Szell.

Bosmans didn’t follow her mother's Jewish faith. Nevertheless, her ancestry played a significant role in the events of her life. She lived through the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, when tens of thousands of Amsterdam Jews were deported to concentration camps, including her fellow citizen, Anne Frank. This week, Donald Macleod is joined by Bosmans expert Dr Helen Metzelaar and also Dr Laurien Vastenhout from Amsterdam’s Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide.

During the 1920s and 30s, Henriëtte Bosmans was making a name for herself as a concert pianist. She was regularly engaged to perform with orchestras and her chamber ensemble, toured the Netherlands. The intense pressure of her performing work led Bosmans to feel that she’d reached a crisis point as a composer and she sought the help of her neighbour, the composer Willem Pijper. From this point her compositions began to move away from the Late-Romantic sound of the 19th century, towards a more forward-looking style. In 1934 Bosmans became engaged to the violinist Francis Koene. However, tragedy struck, and Koene died that same year of a brain tumour. Years later, Bosmans confessed that she “died a little bit then” herself.

Arietta (from Two Recital Pieces)
Francien Schatborn, viola
Jeannette Koekkoek, piano

Trio for piano, violin and cello
Leonore Piano Trio

Im Mondenglanze ruht das Meer
Julia Bronkhorst, soprano
Maarten Hillenius, piano

Le diable dans la nuit
Julia Bronkhorst, soprano
Maarten Hillenius, piano

Concertino for piano and orchestra
Ronald Brautigam, piano
Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra
Ed Spanjaard, conductor

Produced by Luke Whitlock, for BBC Wales