Franz Brüggen

There are those that fight one day and are good. There are those that fight for a year and are better. There are those that fight for many years and are very good. But there are those that fight for all life... These are essential.”
- Bertolt Brecht

Telemann, "Fantasie No.. 3," performed by Franz Brüggen ...

Franz Brüggen explains his "righteous attempt" ...


I remember a statement of Brüggen’s during an interview before a hall filled with recorder “freaks.” He was asked why with all his musical talents he remained in the recorder world. After a long pause, waiting till the auditorium became very quiet (timing was never his weak point), he asked his questioner one of his own, “Do you yourself play the recorder?” After an affirmative nod of the listener and others in the audience came the carefully formulated question, “During all your times of playing recorder, did you ever just get tears in your eyes?” whereupon the hall hushed down even further. The urgency and intensity he used when speaking induced many listeners, including this writer, to gulp in amazement. That was Frans Brüggen’s essential nature of love and life – his capacity to bring forth with apparently simple means, but with a perfect feeling for timing and subtlety, a performance that could quietly hold a full hall in rapture with his natural charisma.

Read the rest here.

The following is a roughly translated description of Frans Brüggen’s involvement in a 1966 protest against the progressive interpretations of classical music ...
The Five was a group formed by Louis Andriessen as were their colleagues and former co-students Reinbert de Leeuw (b.1938), Misha Mengelberg (b.1935), and Jan van Vlijmen (b.1935), In 1966 they organized a public protest against the artistic direction taken by the Concertgebouw Orchestra. At stake was the alleged conservatism of the programs (which, as far as new music was concerned, was indeed dominated by the older generation, the Pijper-pupils). The protesters hoped to have Bruno Maderna, champion of new and old music, appointed as second conductor, next to Bernard Haitink. It didn't work out. The Five, however, did not stand alone; they were the spokesmen for a larger group that called themselves the "Notenkrakers" ("Nutcrackers", a play on the Dutch word "noot" which means "nut" as well as "musical note"). By the end of 1969, things came to a standstill when the Notenkrakers, still fighting for a more progressive artistic course, disturbed a concert in the Concertgebouw, which led to a minor riot. To the great disappointment of the Nutcrackers, the old Matthijs Vermeulen, whom they held in great esteem for his critical views, condemned their actions. By that time the 1960s already belonged to the past and a lot of illusions had gone with them. One year after the protest, they took the Office of Concertgebouw and finally the chief of the Concertgebouw decided to made an "open session" to discuss the causes of the disturbance.

In the middle of the discussion, Frans Brüggen - in public - suddenly stood up and took the microphone and defended the position of the young group, saying that, "All the notes of Mozart and Beethoven are a whole lie from the A to Z....... they don't use the original instruments, they don't follow the true work, they played edited sheets!!! All the music they are playing for all these decades is absolutely a lie. During the speech when he was questioned if he was disturbed in the concert he answered, "Yes ... I was, but I was little drunk." The questioner asked him, "But now all is clear for you?" He responded, "Yes, now all is clear."

In 2004, when Frans Brüggen was interviewed by Sieuwert Verster, he confessed that this day during the famus speech defending the group, he was "dronken mans praat" but spoke from the depth of his heart ....



Frans Brüggen created the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century in 1981.

Three, four or sometimes even more times a year the Orchestra gathers for an international tour. The musicians, all specialists in eighteenth and early nineteenth century music, play on period instruments or on contemporary copies. It is their intention to try to achieve the most authentic as possible performances of the masterpieces of the late baroque and classical era.

Frans Brüggen's wide ranging repertoire with his Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century includes works by Purcell, Bach, Rameau, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn.

In its structure and size, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century resembles the luxurious "Classical" orchestras of the period as they were known in London, Paris and Vienna.

Franz Brüggen conducts Mozart's Gran Partita with period instruments and arrangement ...

I have many recordings of Franz Brüggen's recorder work, but I never knew much about his desire for the authentic. Now I understand why I enjoyed his work so much.

Or maybe it's just that I like saying, "Franz Brüggen."