Johannes Bernardus van Bree (Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, 29 January 1801 – Amsterdam, 14 February 1857) was a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist and conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

. He was a pupil of Jan George Bertelman.

From 1829 to the year of his death he directed the Felix Meritis Society. He was also the director of the Music School of the Society of the Promotion of Music, Amsterdam.

As a conductor he gave the Dutch premieres of Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique

Symphonie Fantastique

Symphonie Fantastique: Épisode de la vie d'un Artiste...en cinq parties , Op. 14, is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is one of the most important and representative pieces of the early Romantic period, and is still very popular with concert audiences...

 (in 1855) and Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

's Faust Overture

Faust Overture

The Faust Overture is a concert overture composed by German composer Richard Wagner. Wagner originally composed it from 1839-40, intending it to be the first movement of a Faust Symphony based on the play Faust by German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...

 (1856).

Incomplete list of works

• Operas
  • Sappho
  • Nimm dich in Acht
  • Le Bandit (overture recorded on NM Classics)
• Choral and Vocal Works
  • Mass for Soloists, Mixed Chorus and Orchestra in A flat (ca. 1830)
  • Mass for Two-Part Chorus and Organ in F
  • Three Masses "tribus vocibus humanis, comitante organo" for Three-Part Male Chorus and Organ (1837)
  • Cantata "St. Cecilia's Day" (in D)
  • Psalm 84 (1840s?)
• Orchestral and Chamber works
  • Overture in B minor
  • Overture in E flat major (1839)
  • Scene, for Horn and Orchestra (1841)
  • Variations for violin and piano (1837)
  • Violin Concerto
  • Allegro for Four String Quartets in D minor (about 1845)
  • Scherzi, for the piano (about 1855?)
  • String Quartets - no. 1 in A minor (about 1834), no. 2 in E flat (about 1840, dedicated to Bernhard Molique), no. 3 in D minor (ca. 1848).

External links