Peter Bree

Peter and the Woof: Peter Bree and his mascot Nero (1980s)

Peter Bree (Driebergen-Rijsenburg, the Netherlands, 23 September 1949) is a Dutch oboist and radio presenter.

He received his first oboe lessons from John Schreuder. He made his debut when he was 15. At the University of Groningen he studied English Language and Literature. Subsequently from 1973 he studied oboe at the Amsterdams Muzieklyceum (the present Amsterdam Conservatoire) with Han de Vries and later, with a scholarship from the Dutch Cultural Ministry, in London with Neil Black.

Peter Bree initially worked for some years as a teacher of English at secondary schools in Amsterdam, before being appointed oboist with Dutch radio (NOS), where he played in the Metropole Orkest. He later concentrated mostly on concert and chamber music, making many radio and CD recordings: compositions dedicated to him of, among others, Edmund Rubbra, Abel Ehrlich, Jan Koetsier and Ruud Bos, and the complete oboe sonatas of François Devienne that he edited and published together with Dr Bernard Rose (Magdalen College, Oxford) [1]. UK debut: May 1976 at Pembroke College chapel, Oxford (with organist/harpsichordist Jonathan Katz, followed by London recitals (Purcell Room, April 1979, with pianist John Alley; Wigmore Hall, November 1981, with pianist Paul Komen). He was invited in 1981 to present his LP with works by Rubbra, Britten and others to H.M. Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother at Royal Lodge, Windsor Great Park. Also in 1981 he received the Silver 'Vriendenkrans' award of the Friends of the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam) and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 1988 the Marquis Giuseppe Scicluna International University Foundation in Malta and Delaware awarded him an honorary doctorate in music (D. Mus. Hon.) "for services to music". He gave the first performance in the Netherlands of Grace Williams' Carillons (1980, with Dutch Radio's Promenade Orchestra under Jan Stulen) and of Michael Berkeley's Oboe Concerto (1984, with the Radio Chamber Orchestra under Richard Hickox), Both performances were recorded for Dutch radio. In 1994 he stopped playing the oboe professionnally. He suffered a stroke (CVA) in mid-2017, and since the sudden death of his best friend and companion Jur Zandbergen on Christmas Eve 2017 he has more or less retired from public and musical life.

From 1980 to 1983, Peter Bree worked as a radio producer with Dutch broadcasting company AVRO, and later as radio presenter and producer with Veronica broadcasting company from 1984 to 1992, from 1994 to 1998 with Concert Radio, and from 1998 again with AVRO. From 1984 till the end of 2010 he could be heard as presenter of classical music programmes and concert broadcasts on the Dutch classical music channel Radio 4. In 2011 he compiled a CD box to mark the 70th birthday of Han de Vries, entitled "Han de Vries – The Radio Recordings" (Oboe Classics CC 2024). This was followed in 2017 by a second CD box to mark Han de Vries's 75th birthday, with the title "Han de Vries – The almost last recordings" (Attacca Productions ATT 2016.148).

In 1980, he founded together with Yehudi Menuhin (Lord Menuhin of Stoke d'Abernon) the Live Music Now foundation in the Netherlands, of which he was vice president till 1985. From 1987 he has been chairman of The Academy of the Begijnhof, Amsterdam. From 2001 till 2009 he was a member of the board and chairman of the artistic committee of the Netherlands Bach Society (Nederlandse Bachvereniging). On his initiative a new bridge in the Amsterdam Zuidas quarter (designed by architect Liesbeth van der Pol) was named after the composer Lex van Delden; the bridge was officially opened on October 15th, 2013.

Recordings

– with conservatoire chamber orchestra anf flautist Leo Samama (Fasch Oboe & Flute Concerto), 1975 (D&S 6810.765)
– with soprano Christine Harvey (Bach), 1975 (Mirasound SGLP 6121)
– with Chr. Gem. Zangvereniging Jubilate Deo, Woudenberg (Handel, Mendelssohn), 1978 (STH Records MC 8227; re-issued on CD as SNT-CD 8158)
– with Telemann Ensemble (Telemann), 1981 (CRCI 180542; re-issued on CD by Etcetera Records KTC 1083)
– with organist Jaap Zwart Jr (Marais, Rheinberger, Handel, Koetsier, Pierné), 1981 (CRCI 180541)
– with pianist Jan Slothouwer (Louis Andriessen), 1981 (Phonogram/BFO 6814.482)
– with pianist Paul Komen (Rubbra, Britten, Grabert, Röntgen), 1981 (CRCI 180550; re-issued on CD by Etcetera Records KTC 1074)
– with pianist Paul Komen (Andriessen, Jacob, Britten, Koetsier, Grovlez, Bos), 1982 (CRCI 180620) – with Wegenbouwkapel Nederland (Huggens' Treble Concerto), 1983 (Mirasound 20.5080; re-issued on CD by Eurosound ES 46.950 CD)
– with Roderick Shaw, fortepiano (Devienne Sonates), 1990/91 (co production Bayerische Rundfunk / Etcetera Records) (Etcetera Records KTC 1084 / KTC 1106, re-issued together as KTC 2506)