"It is essential for a composer to be aware of the conventions, just like Bach and Beethoven in their time," says Cornelis de Bondt. "He needs to realise that everything he writes, every choice he makes, is always related to these conventions, whether he likes it or not. If he doesn’t understand this, whatever he expresses won’t rise above the naive level of a circus act, however technically accomplished the performance. And art by definition surpasses the naive."

De Bondt belongs to The Hague School. He concluded his studies at the Conservatory of The Hague in 1984, winning the Composition Prize. In all his works he enters into dialogue with tradition. Sometimes he does this very explicitly, like in his large-scale commentary on the madrigal Bloed (Blood, 1998/2002). But often it is on an inaudible level, in the framework of a composition. For example, the first 25 measures of Webern’s Symphony opus 21 are embedded in the foundation of his piano concerto Die Wahre Art (2000) which is named after an essay by C.P.E. Bach. "Art should be more than an expression of the artist’s emotion," he says; art is also a form, and "formalism requires a certain detachment." A detachment which, when listening, is bridged by the seductiveness of de Bondt’s fanciful, virtuoso musical idiom.

De Bondt is afraid certain key values in music that are of great importance for a musician to determine his position, like a thorough knowledge of the tradition and attentive listening, are becoming less important. At a recent performance of his early piano work Grand Hotel (1985-88), written for Gerard Bouwhuis who took years to study the work, De Bondt realised that over the years the piece has taken on various shapes, that it allows different interpretations that all do justice to the score. "For me the fact that a score grows is not primarily a technical matter. The performance of Grand Hotel hasn’t become better, but rather richer because it is alive. It is the room for discovery that a score offers a musician that matters, and the willingness to follow, to experience this development - and this takes years, not hours... Sadly, such intensive and at the same time prolonged relationship with music doesn’t seem to be of this time."

Joep Stapel

Cornelis de Bondt's interests:
Everything that is made with the intention to do it as perfect as possible, whether it is a masterpiece or boiling an egg.

Cornelis de Bondt's heroes and inspiration:
Authenticity, craftsmanship, determination and an unstoppable curiosity - to me, in music this is epitomized by Beethoven and Stockhausen.