Dutch courage: the Concertgebouw Orchestra would make Brahms repent

Dismissed as a nation of bad musicians by Brahms, the Dutch went on to create the world's greatest orchestra, the Concertgebouw, tackling even his challening Fourth SymphonyJohannes Brahms made a pithy assessment of the Dutch in 1884. They were, he said, "nice people, but bad musicians". What had occasioned his irritation was the behaviour of the orchestra in the run-up to the premiere of his Third Symphony at the Gebouw der Vrije Gemeente in Amsterdam. The cellists of the Amsterdam Orkest Veren...

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