Brucken Fock - Symphony No.1

[promusician]

Thanks to our hero member Ilja that introduce me to this unsung Dutch composer, Gerard von Brucken Fock. He composed 3 symphonies but none of them are recorded. I tried to simulate the 1st symphony, dated 1885-86 according to the score, which has the following structure:

Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 12
1. Sostenuto-Allegro molto
2. Andante molto cantabile
3. Scherzo: allegro molto
4. Finale. Adagio

Attached is the 1st movement Intro-Exposition-Development, stops at beginning of Recapitulation.

If you are interested to hear more unsung works, please consider to support my new Patreon channel
https://www.patreon.com/c/UnsungMasterworks
I will be doing orchestral works besides instrumental concertos, although I already have a sizeable pile in my arsenal

P/S: Thanks to Ilja for his time taking photographs of the full score from NMI to complete this project

[Alan Howe]

Thanks! I thoroughly enjoyed this and am intrigued to hear more from the exciting point at which the excerpt breaks off. I suppose the basic idiom is Brahmsian, but quite memorable and potentially rather attractive. If you have the time, more please!

[promusician]

I have completed until the last 2nd page of 1st movement, due to the missing last page, the music hangs on the climatic part once again, regretfully!

It will be completed once I got the missing page scanned.

I am using NPPE Nucleus in this simulation.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks so much for this. It sounds like a really strong, characterful work and I look forward with keen anticipation to hearing more.

[promusician]

2nd movement is ready and I posted on my Patreon (for free)

[Mark Thomas]

A digital realisation of Brucken Fock's single-movement Piano Concerto has just been posted on YouTube:

It's rather powerful stuff.

[semloh]

Oh, gosh, yes. That made me sit up and listen! The realisation sounds very convincing. As someone who cannot play the piano, it also sounds like it might be rather challening (?)

[promusician]

Eric Matser, the authority of Brucken Fock has posted in many months earlier.

I have not got the score, but will certainly improve the tutti greatly when I got it.

[Ilja]

Matser's book De Hollandse Chopin is a great resource for Brucken Fock*, and together with similar biographies of Kees Dopper (by Joop Stam), Julius Röntgen (by Jurjen Vis), Jan van Gilse (by Hans van Dijk) and Johan Wagenaar (by Johannes Wagenaar en Jaap van Benthem) gives us a pretty good landscape of Dutch composers in the late 19th and early 20th century. Brucken Fock is particularly interesting because of his evolution from central European examples towards an apparently more French-oriented style (audible in the later symphonic poem Côte sauvage), a bit like Jan van Gilse would undertake later. Matser's biography describes Brucken Fock's as a man of many talents, that nonetheless experienced great difficulties in finding a balance in life between his activities as a painter, a composer and a (intensely) religious activist and preacher. 

* The only thing I don't particularly like is Matser's habit of continually referring to Brucken Fock as "Holland's (or "The Dutch") Chopin". For one, his music isn't particularly Chopinesque for the most part; in addition, he wasn't from Holland but stemmed from the southern province of Zeeland. But mostly because it implies that he was a mere epigone. As becomes clear from this concerto (or concerto movement, it's not entirely clear) he possessed more individuality than that. For some reason, the Dutch have great difficulty to get away from this almost apologetic attitude with regard to our musical heritage.

[eschiss1]

I wonder how they refer to Vermeulen- the Dutch Pettersson? (Joking!!!!!!!)

[promusician]

My simulation of 3rd movement Scherzo has been put up on Youtube by Eric Master

Other movements will be uploaded to Youtube to promote the works of VBF