Our western heritage has no equal

Kees Vlaardingerbroek in conversation with Doorbraak

Musicologist Kees Vlaardingerbroek © Doorbraak

They are as famous as they are infamous: the experimental musical performances in the classical concert hall or the modern art that occupies a floor of a stately museum. Dutch musicologist Kees Vlaardingerbroek is familiar with them too: 'Most modern art makes no one happy. Except maybe the artist.' His criticism was not received with gratitude in the Netherlands.

From 2006 to 2023, Kees Vlaardingerbroek was the artistic director of the NTR ZaterdagMatinee, the weekly concerts in Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw, broadcast on radio and television. He received his doctorate in musicology from Utrecht University back in 1986, after which he was active in the classical music world as a journalist, editor and producer. He never concealed his disapproval of “neo-Marxist cultural relativism,” as Vlaardingerbroek calls it, during his long career.