Occupied Amsterdam

Donald Macleod looks into Bosmans’s war years

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.

Towards the beginning of World War Two, Henriëtte Bosmans found herself in great demand as a performer. The turbulence in Europe meant that other pianists, such as Myra Hess, were cancelling their planned visits to Holland. Following the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, Bosmans considered leaving for the USA but decided she couldn’t abandon her now elderly mother. By 1942, Bosmans’s music had been banned by the Dutch National Broadcasting Organisation and there was also an injunction which forbade her from performing. With little income and now relying on friends for food, Bosmans took to performing in illegal concerts; on at least one occasion, she was nearly caught and arrested. A further blow came when her mother Sara was arrested and sent to a transit camp awaiting deportation.

Prelude No 5 (from Six Preludes)
Danny Driver, piano

Cello Sonata (excerpt)
Franz Bartolomey, cello
Clemens Zeilinger, piano

Cello Concerto No 2, UK première
Gemma Rosefield, cello
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Jonathan Bloxham, conductor

Lead Kindly Light
Julia Bronkhorst, soprano
Maarten Hillenius, piano

Gebed
Julia Bronkhorst, soprano
Maarten Hillenius, piano

Produced by Luke Whitlock, for BBC Wales