Orchestra war escalates: Enschede's star orchestra has to hand in instruments

Seizure of the instruments of the former Netherlands Symphony Orchestra is imminent. The orchestra, which, since a lost legal battle with Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra is no longer allowed to use the word 'Dutch', so is not allowed to sell instruments or take them abroad. Pending a countermove from the former Orchestra of the East, they changed the name there to ***** Symphony Orchestra.

Jan Willem De Vriend, conductor of the troubled Enschede-based orchestra, wrote the following in a letter to the Volkskrant this morning: "But even that is not enough for NedPho. With note real penalty payments of 1,000 euros a day as a result. The counter already stands at 34,000! And to complete the war, NedPho is now about to seize our accounts and instruments. While on 18 March, the proceedings on the merits already begin. However, NedPho does not want to wait for the outcome. It is too crazy for words and touches me deeply."

On Facebook, orchestra members of the various orchestras are now also rolling over each other. This is a sad development, as it is ultimately about a battle between directors that has been raging for years. Arjen Leendertz, who works at the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, sums it up in a comment on the social network as follows: "I don't understand that if you make agreements that you don't just stick to them, the problem is not so much whether musicians show solidarity, but the problem is often in the policies of their director, of which musicians bear the brunt and it ends up being at the expense of quality, and the audience is therefore the brunt... Too bad!"

Remarkably, artistic director De Vriend is again put forward, while in this business dispute between orchestra directors, director Harm Mannak refrains from commenting. The consequences of this orchestral war could be great, not only for the musicians of the orchestra, but also for colleagues at the Nederlandse Reisopera. Indeed, tomorrow the first orchestral rehearsals for Bach's St John Passion scheduled. The premiere is in a week, followed by an extensive tour. Should the orchestra default, the number of lawsuits may well grow like an oil slick.

More on this lingering issue can be found here, and here