Although the mezzo-soprano Anke Schierbeek was the one who inspired Diepenbrock to set Caldara’s Come raggio di sol (Like a Ray of Sun, RC 138) to music, he wrote the song with the voice of the soprano Aaltje Noordewier-Reddingius in mind. Right from the beginning Diepenbrock intended to make an arrangement for soprano and wind quintet, in view of the tour Noordewier was to go on with the Concertgebouw Sextet. This famous ensemble consisted of flutist Nic. Klasen (1869-1961), clarinettist Piet Swager (1878-1936), oboist Georges Blanchard (1883-1954), bassoon player Joseph de Groen (1867-1943), horn player Heike Tak (1869-1934), and pianist and artistic leader Evert Cornelis (1884-1931).
Although the mezzo-soprano Anke Schierbeek was the one who inspired Diepenbrock to set Caldara’s Come raggio di sol (Like a Ray of Sun, RC 138) to music, he wrote the song with the voice of the soprano Aaltje Noordewier-Reddingius in mind. Right from the beginning Diepenbrock intended to make an arrangement for soprano and wind quintet, in view of the tour Noordewier was to go on with the Concertgebouw Sextet. This famous ensemble consisted of flutist Nic. Klasen (1869-1961), clarinettist Piet Swager (1878-1936), oboist Georges Blanchard (1883-1954), bassoon player Joseph de Groen (1867-1943), horn player Heike Tak (1869-1934), and pianist and artistic leader Evert Cornelis (1884-1931).
The version for ensemble, which Diepenbrock made a year after completing the song, was premiered in the Recital Hall of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw on 13 February 1918. After the concert the critic Herman Rutters said Come raggio di sol was successful in its expression of atmosphere, declaimed sensitively and with very expressive timbres in the accompaniment
. (BD IX:576-577) The same musicians were to perform the song again in the Concertgebouw on 19 October 1920.
Come raggio di sol is the last song Diepenbrock was to complete. Four attempts at setting French poems came to nothing (see RC 143, 144, 145, 147). At the end of his life Diepenbrock concentrated on writing incidental music. From 1917 onwards he received three commissions to write music for the stage. These were large-scale projects that took a lot of time and energy.
Robert Spannenberg
