Philip Vlessing
Philip Vlessing was making a name for himself as cellist and composer in The Hague when his father died in May 1934. Together with his sister Netty, he took over his father's music school and many of his amateur (wind) orchestras. This meant his income was more secure but there was less time for composing. Still, his music was performed on the radio until the Nazis banned all music by Jewish composers. Vlessing composed chamber music, works for orchestra, for (amateur) wind orchestra as well as entertainment music under the pseudonym Jack Bottle.
by Carine Alders
Philip Vlessing was born in IJmuiden, a fishery harbour town west of Amsterdam, on 12 May 1905. He received his first piano lessons from his father Sam Vlessing, a composer and conductor who owned a local music school. Sam had in turn received his first lessons from his mother, Belgian pianist Joanna van Stratum, and had studied with Peter Benoit at the conservatoire of Antwerp. Philip studied cello with Jaap Valk, Felix Kwast and Marix Loevensohn. At the age of 17, he followed in his father's footsteps and moved to Antwerp to study cello with Arnold Godenne.
After graduating with distinction, Vlessing jr. moved to The Hague, where he was employed as solo cellist with the Italian Opera. He studied counterpoint with Johan Wagenaar and orchestration and theory with Marius Kerrebijn. Vlessing dedicated a symphonic poem Hollandsch feest to his teacher Wagenaar on the occasion of his 70th birthday. He further composed a Serenade Espagnole, dedicated to his colleague Sam Swaap, concertmaster of the The Hague Residentie Orchestra, and a string quartet En forme de suite, premiered by Swaap and his Residentie String Quartet. For his father's wind orchestras, he composed a suite which was awarded first prize in a competition organised by Harmonia publishers. The suite was premiered on 7 November 1931 by Sam Vlessing and his wind orchestra De Eendracht. The local critic praised the beautiful melody of the second movement and the suite was performed many more times in competitions.
Sam Vlessing fell seriously ill not long after the premiere of his son's suite for wind orchestra. When he died in 1934, Philip and his wife Rachel Viskoper moved to IJmuiden to take over Vlessing's music school, together with Philip's sister Netty. Vlessing jr. also took over many of his fathers amateur orchestras. Philip and Rachel moved to the nearby city of Haarlem and Philip continued to perform as a cellist in chamber music and as soloist. In December 1936, the VARA Radio Orchestra performed his Travel impressions from Genua. Vlessing aslo composed a symphonic poem titled Tsion Tamiatie, which was to be performed in the 1938-39 season by the Groninger Orkest Vereeniging, led by Kor Kuiler. No evidence was found of this performance taking place.
When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, Vlessings music was soon banned and he himself was rounded up in August 1942. His train to Auschwitz left transit camp Westerbork on 28 August 1942. Not all people in this transport were sent directly to Auschwitz. In Cosel (now Koźle in Poland), 80 kilometers west of Auschwitz, able-bodied men were taken from the train to work as forced labourers. The circumstances of Philip Vlessing's death are unknown.
Vlessing's music manuscripts, together with those of his father and some documents of his sister Netty, were found in the street ready to be taken away as garbage. In 1983, musicologist and violinist Willem Noske rescued the manuscripts to be added to the collections of the Netherlands Music Institute of the The Hague Municipal Archive. Netty Vlessing survived the war in hiding in the northern province of Friesland. Many years after the war, she returned to IJmuiden where she was a respected piano teacher until her mental health deteriorated. She died around 1985.