Music by 20th-century composers.
Gerard Schurmann: English composer with Dutch roots – 1
Gerard Schurmann was born a hundred years ago, in 1924, in Kertosono on Java (then part of the Dutch East Indies). He was a composer, pianist and conductor.
He moved to Great-Britain at a young age and became a British citizen later on. After WWII, he conducted for Dutch radio for several years. When he came back to England again, he mostly worked on composing music, including several film scores and also orchestra works and chamber music. He moved to Los Angeles in 1980, where he passed away at 96 years of age in 2020.
Though Schurmann’s music is still quite well-known in England, he is almost forgotten in The Netherlands. In today’s programme a recent recording of his piano concerto.
Playlist:
Gerard Schurmann
- Leotaurus. Theme and Variations for Piano (1974-75)
Mikhail Korzhev (piano) - Chuench’i: Song-Cycle (song 1-6) (1966)
Randall Bills (tenor), Mark Robson (piano) - Piano concerto (1972-73)
Xiayin Wang (piano), BBC Philharmonic conducted by Ben Gernon
