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Who is Marius Flothuis?
1. Who is Marius Flothuis?

2. Flothuis's works
Marius Flothuis maintained a position of leadership within the musical world of the Nertherlands for more than 50 years and, at the same time, maintained a leading position also within the world of the Mozartian studies, thanks to his extremely active collaboration with Salzburg and with the Dutch Mozart Society.
      A man of great erudition, knowledge and learnedness, his career as a professional musician/musicologist was marked by an important sign of continuity with the Dutch Mozartian tradition of the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century through his pre-WWII post as a young assistant to Rudolf Mengelberg (Concertgebouw), nephew and pupil of that Willem Mengelberg who, as a conductor successor of Kes, carried on (especially in the years 1895-1919) a good work of Mozartian promotion both through and within the Concertgebouw Orchestra, which in 1880s was not particularly famous for its Mozartian choices.

Marius Flothuis & The Period Before WWII
In the period before WWII Marius Flothuis completed his secondary studies and, at the same time, mainly as a self taught composer, started an intense activity of music composition which, since then, he continued all his life long. Among his teachers we remember: Jacques Presser (who according to his pupil and family friend Leo Samama had an enormous influence on Flothuis's approach to the studies and the knowledge); Hans Brandts Buys (piano and music theory); Smijers (music theory, Utrecht); Bernet Kempers (music theory, Amsterdam). 
      In the 1930s, he became a Bachelor both in classical languages and in musicology (Amsterdam) and became assistant to Rudolf Mengelberg at the Concertgebouw Orchestra (1937).
      In this period (the 1930s) Flothuis reveals all his Mozartian major interest and especially for a strict philological and historical informed approach, a fact rather unusual and revolutionary at that time.
      With Lili Kraus, Flothuis prepares an intense and finely documented work of reconstruction of the style, of the quality and of the correctness of the performance of the piano concertos by Mozart, a research for knowledge and formal purity that was also at the very centre of the interests of the Dutch Mozart Society since the beginning of the 1902 and that even pre-dated it.
      In a very special atmosphere of extremely accurate work, the idea that probably it was possible to use even the original instruments to play Mozart's music created a first historical step towards a certain musical practice that will become common only 30 years later!
      Lili Kraus and Flothuis worked on C.P.E. Bach and on his theory manual, reconstructed an orchestra of 45 performers in the style of Mannheim, carried on a subtle work on the type of touch and interpretation, in order to develop it as more similar to the original piano technique of Mozart.
      This preparation led to a legendary Season of Concerts 1939-1940 (Lili Kraus-Flothuis), which marked a milestone in the long way towards a real Mozart Renaissance. 

Marius Flothuis & The Period During WWII
WWII represents a period particularly difficult and hard for Flothuis. Lili Kraus left the Netherlands for the Dutch Indies to end up in a Japanese concentration camp, while Flothuis, under the Nazi regime, refuses to collaborate, loses his position, helps Jews. All this makes him an undesired figure in the occupied Netherlands and from 1943 to 1945 will spend these tremendous years in prison camps and concentration camps.
      He managed to find his way back to the Netherlands only in May 1945, still alive but in very bad health conditions.

Marius Flothuis & The Period After WWII
Despite his personal conditions, on 27 October 1945 Flothuis managed to attend the general meeting of the Dutch Mozart Society and with Limperg, Halbertsma, Meeter and Nella Gunning created a committee to purge out the collaborators of the Nazi regime from the Dutch Mozart Society.
      His personal health situation and also the situation of the Dutch Mozart Society are not particularly good at this moment, and only after a period spent as a librarian at the Foundation Donemus (1946-50) he will manage to have his position back at the Concertgebouw and to start a new florid season for the Dutch Mozart Society again in collaboration with the Mozarteum of Salzburg and also in collaboration with Leonhardt.
     So the 1950s see the Dutch Mozart Society intensifying its Mozart promotion activities and its concert seasons organization.
     In 1969 Flothuis gets his doctor's degree with a work on Mozart (Amsterdam). And from 1974 to 1983 he is professor of musicology at the University of Utrecht.
     In 1975, after 34 years spent as a major motor of the Association, Flothuis receives the honorary membership of the Dutch Mozart Society. 

The Netherlands+Salzburg: The Great Mozartian Activity
Flothuis intense Mozartian scholarly activity and his long time contacts with the Mozarteum made him the perfect man to become the chairman of the Zentralinstitut fur Mozart-Forschung (Salzburg), a position he held from 1984 to 1994.
       In 1989 there's the celebration of the 50 years of the Dutch Mozart Society in the Netherlands and TV and Radio and Flothuis are at the very centre of this event with the special presence of high representatives of IS Mozarteum Salzburg.
     In 1994 Flothuis writes also a play on a Mozartian subject: A domestic musical evening at the Mozarts. The play is performed by members of the Dutch Mozart Society: Passchler as Mozart, Peddemors as Haydn, Voorwijk as Constanze.

Flothuis, The Composer
During his intense life, Flothuis kept composing music and also the completion of some unfinished works (i.e. Mozart's Adagio K580a, 1789).
     He wrote ca. 100 compositions in any genre, but not operas. Many compositions by him are still today public's favourite works.
     In 2001 Flothuis died at the age of 87.

Marius Flothuis, Symphonische Muziek Op. 59 (1957)
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WORKS BY Marius Flothuis
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A) Written works by Marius Flothuis (a selection of the most important ones):
  • Mozart (The Hague, 1940)
  • Hedendaagse Engelse componisten (Amsterdam, 1949)
  • Pianomuziek (Bilthoven, 1958)
  • Mozarts bearbeitungen eigener und fremder Werke, Diss. (Kassel, 1969)

B) Scores editions by Marius Flothuis (a selection):
  • Haydn J., Arianna a Naxos (Salzburg, 1965)
  • Mozart W.A., Klavierkonzerte (4 concertos) (Kassel, 1972)