Leidsch Dagblad
- REQUEST FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A MONUMENTS ORDINANCE.
- Bohemian String Quartet.
- NOTICE.
This Leiden daily's front page mixed civic affairs, music and news about the paper itself. Its lead item printed the closing argument of a petition asking the municipal council for a monuments ordinance: buildings on a list could not be demolished or altered without the municipal authorities' special permission, given only after a Commissie van Waakzaamheid had been heard. The petitioners admitted this protection was incomplete, but said it cost the town nothing and hardly troubled owners. A concert review noted that the Bohemian String Quartet was nearing its 500th Dutch concert, thirty years after a thinly attended first appearance in The Hague. A notice from the management announced a new 32-page rotary press with stereotyping equipment and marked it with a 32-page issue.
Translation
REQUEST FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A MONUMENTS ORDINANCE.
If it is then laid down that the monuments appearing on this list may not be demolished or altered without the special permission of the municipal authorities, after the Commissie van Waakzaamheid has been heard, then the monuments of your municipality will, in a manner that is no burden to the municipality and of little inconvenience to the owners, receive a protection that is admittedly not entirely sufficient, but that nonetheless ensures their preservation at least to some extent.
Bohemian String Quartet.
In a few days the Bohemian String Quartet will give its five-hundredth concert in the Netherlands. That will of course be a festive concert. Last night's Leiden concert comes so close to the half-thousand in the numbering that there is reason for us, too, to pause for a moment and cast a look back. It is exactly thirty years ago that the first Dutch concert took place in The Hague, before a handful of people, in the large hall of the building for K. en W. The quartet had then existed for three years.
NOTICE.
On the occasion of our having put into operation in recent days a new 32-page rotary press with new stereotyping equipment, we appear today with 32 pages, the largest number that our machine can deliver folded and ready.
THE MANAGEMENT.
Context
A permit system for listed buildings: the 1926 proposal and Leiden's practice today
The excerpt is the conclusion of a petition to Leiden's municipal council, which the page attributes to the historical society Oud Leiden and the Nederlandsche Oudheidkundige Bond. The petitioners proposed a list of protected monuments. Owners could not demolish or alter a listed building without the municipal authorities' special permission, and the authorities would first hear a vigilance committee, the Commissie van Waakzaamheid. The petitioners openly called this protection less than sufficient. They argued for it because it cost the municipality nothing and put little burden on owners. That was a modest request: they sought a veto over destruction, not a budget for restoration. Present-day Leiden works on the same principle of prior permission. The city counts more than 2,800 monuments and describes itself as the fourth monument city of the Netherlands. Before alterations to a monument or a characteristic building are allowed, the municipality checks that no historically valuable elements will be lost. Oud Leiden is still active and now also works to preserve monumental art from the post-war reconstruction period.
Who the Bohemian Quartet were and when they began
The Bohemian Quartet was a Czech string quartet of international standing, founded in 1891 and dissolved in 1933. Three of its founders, Karel Hoffmann, Josef Suk and Oskar Nedbal, were pupils of Antonín Bennewitz at the Prague Conservatory. The group toured Europe again and again, especially with the quartets of Dvořák and Smetana, and was known for its warm tone and fiery rhythms. This explains why a Leiden reviewer could take its Dutch visits for granted as a regular event. The paper dates the first Dutch concert in The Hague to exactly thirty years earlier, around 1896, and says the quartet was then three years old. The ensemble's founding date varies slightly between sources. Its encyclopedia entry gives 1891, while Hoffmann's biography says the members founded it officially in 1892. The paper's count of three years by 1896 is therefore one or two years off from these dates.
The quartet in 1926: professors, a rector and a long run
By the time of the Leiden concert, the quartet was a long-established institution in Czech musical life. In 1922 all four members were appointed professors at the Prague Conservatory. First violinist Karel Hoffmann was appointed rector of the Conservatory for 1926–1927, so his term overlapped with the autumn tour reported here. Hoffmann was also the only member who stayed with the ensemble throughout its existence from 1892 to 1934. Over those decades many key contemporary works were written for or first performed by the quartet, including works by Dvořák and Janáček. The figure of nearly 500 Dutch concerts in thirty years is the paper's own count. If accurate, it means the quartet averaged well over a dozen concerts a year in the Netherlands, which shows how firmly it had settled into Dutch concert life.
The Leidsch Dagblad behind the 32-page press
The Leidsch Dagblad, founded on 1 March 1860, is still published as Leiden's regional newspaper. By 1926 it had seen off a long-established local rival. The Leydsche courant, one of the city's main news sources since 1686, lost its competitive struggle with Sijthoff's Leidsch Dagblad in 1902. The management's notice should be read against that background. A paper that had become Leiden's leading daily put into service a rotary press able to deliver up to 32 folded pages, together with new stereotyping equipment for casting printing plates. It celebrated by printing the maximum the machine could produce. The notice itself states only the capacity and the occasion, but in effect the 32-page issue served as both a technical demonstration and an advertisement for the paper's growth.
Original
VERZOEK TOT INSTELLING VAN EEN MONUMENTEN-VERORDENING.
Wordt dan bepaald, dat de op deze lijst voorkomende monumenten niet zullen mogen worden gesloopt of veranderd zonder de bijzondere toestemming van het Gemeentebestuur, de Commissie van Waakzaamheid gehoord, dan zullen op een voor de Gemeente niet drukkende en voor de eigenaars weinig bezwarende wijze de monumenten uwer gemeente de bescherming vinden, die wel niet geheel afdoende is, maar toch hun behoud althans eenigszins verzekert.
Boheemsch Strijkkwartet.
Over een paar dagen geeft het Boheemsche strijkkwartet zijn vijfhonderdste concert in Nederland. Dat wordt natuurlijk een feestconcert. Het Leidsche van gisteravond is in de nummering zóó na aan het halfduizend, dat er ook voor ons aanleiding bestaat, om eens even te blijven stilstaan en een blik achteruit te werpen. Het is juist dertig jaar geleden dat het eerste Nederlandsche concert in Den Haag voor een handje vol menschen in de groote zaal van het gebouw voor K. en W. plaats vond. Het kwartet bestond toen drie jaar.
BERICHT.
Ter gelegenheid van het feit, dat wij dezer dagen een nieuwe 32-zijdige rotatiemachine met nieuwe stereotypie-inrichting in bedrijf hebben gesteld, komen wij heden uit met 32 pagina's, het grootste aantal, dat door onze machine gevouwen en wel geleverd kan worden.
Source: Source: Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken (leiden.courant.nu)