The exotica thread

[pjme]

Alexander Rahbari on Naxos - symphonic poems.

https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.574064

[ritter]

For a second. I had read "The eRotica thread", and thought a whole new world of possibilities had opened up on GMG. 

Good day, Peter!

[pjme]

And a good day from grey, rainy, far too warm Belgium.

Exotica, erotica...the difference is marginal....

Scriabin, of course...

https://www.youtube.com/v/YR00FO9vKgw

And (fun) DADA risqué... Erwin Schulhoff's Sonata erotica . Tender souls could be shocked, I suppose....
"Performance of the piece – written for a non-existent instrument called the 'Solo-Muttertrompete' (Solo-Mothertrumpet) and suitable, according to Schulhoff, 'for men only' – requires a certain daring and lack of inhibition. Not least at the end, where the prescribed sanitary activities may present a particular challenge to the performer. If this is so, the solution we would suggest is that the performer withdraws behind a screen or offstage to pour water into a zinc bucket, with or without amplification."
YT has at least 3 versions.....You are warned....
http://www.ebonyband.nl/en/library/detail/naam/schulhoff/title/sonata-erotica/

[Florestan]

For a second. I had read "The eRotica thread", and thought a whole new world of possibilities had opened up on GMG. 

I see where you're coming from, I experienced the same reading and thought several times when this thread popped up in the unread topics list.

Tbh, I have no doubt that such a thread would be as contentious, conflictual and divisive as any political thread. 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Alexander Rahbari on Naxos - symphonic poems.

https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.574064

Lovely disc.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Technically western music. Still these works sound very exotic and amazing.

[Roy Bland]

Malaysan symphony
https://youtu.be/16eO8d9RWoc

[pjme]

Technically western music. Still these works sound very exotic and amazing.

It is ... surprising (strange, weird, fun) to see some of Flanders most conservative late - Romantic composers, inspired by Richard Strauss, Ravel & Debussy, César Franck, d'Indy and the Russian 5, turn up in this Exotic thread.
Apart from Van Hoof's symphony, written in 1941 and thus inspired by the war, the other works are sunny, lyrical
honest, quite "simple" evocations of Belgian / Flemish/Kempish landscapes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campine.
There are no palm trees, camels, belly dancing, scantily clad houris or peris to be seen in the province of Antwerp...
Meulemans symphony ("Swan fen") refers to a park near the city of Turnhout and the village of Arendonk, close to the Dutch border: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwaneven


On cd 1 (music by Benoit, Mortelmans and de Vocht) there's more sturdy historicizing, praying & religious suffering and a great romantic cello concerto dating from 1955.

With a view to clarifying his concerto, De Vocht wrote the following text:

'The first movement, Allegro deciso, expresses the urge for decisive, strong-willed innovation from which an enthusiastic lyricism originates. The principal theme, an energetic exhortation on the four notes a-d-e-a becomes, in adapted form, the cornerstone of the last movement too.

The key motif of the Lento, initially hesitant and recurring with more urgency each time after pauses of silence, is followed by a melancholy but passionate cantilena, such as a cello is eminently suitable to express. Then again the painful melancholy is dissolved by the violins, acting like a ray of sunshine. Everything now becomes emotion, flowing into a serene final hymn, in which the principal theme, now with a merry touch, is being elaborated as a canon.

The Allegro vivace – Presto is the stream of vital fullness that the two main elements of the work are drawn into, intertwined in a discharge of joy.'

Belgian composers, of course, didn't escape the lures of exoticism.
Karel Candael (1883-1948) wrote a biblical ballet on the Song of songs and M'bali, a piano piece inspired by Africa. Flor Alpaerts (1876-1954) wrote two large symphonic poems "Cyrus" and "Psyche", Jean De Middeleer (1908-1986) a "Congo-symphony", Jean Absil (1893-1974) a Brazilian rhapsody, Robert Herberigs (1886-1974) Anthony and Cleopatra, August de Boeck a Dahomeyan rhapsody, Norbert Rosseau (1907-1975) Rousslane for orchestra, Edgar Tinel (1854-1912), a Polyeucte suite ....etc.

Flor Alpaerts' Salome is a very well behaved girl: "Dinner is ready, sir".

https://www.youtube.com/v/JO7nbbMV0GM

[pjme]

from "The History of Aboulhassan Ali Ebn Becar," : Schemselnihar, a ballet by Leo Smit.
First performance by Pierre Monteux and the Koncertgebouw Orchestra in 1929.
A superb score!

https://www.youtube.com/v/ZYbuzJWrqMQ

"'It was long before my companions and I could recall her to her senses. At length her conciousness returned. I then said to her, 'Are you resolved, lady, to suffer yourself to die, and to make us die with you? I conjure you in the name of the Prince of Persia, in whom you are so interested, to endeavour to preserve your life. I entreat you to hear me, and to make those efforts which you owe to yourself, to your love for the prince, and to our attachment to you.' 'I thank you sincerely,' returned she, 'for your care, your attention, and your advice. But, alas! how can they be serviceable to me? We are not permitted to flatter ourselves with any hope; and it is only in the bosom of the grave that we may expect a respite from our torments.'
"'One of my companions wished to divert our lady's melancholy ideas by singing a little air to her lute; but Schemselnihar desired her to be silent, and ordered her, with the rest, to quit the room. She kept only me to spend the night with her. Heavens! what a night it was! She passed it in tears and lamentations, calling continually on the name of the Prince of Persia. She bewailed the cruelty of her fate, which had thus destined her for the caliph, whom she could not love, and had deprived her of all hope of being united to the Prince of Persia, of whom she was so passionately enamoured."

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

It is ... surprising (strange, weird, fun) to see some of Flanders most conservative late - Romantic composers, inspired by Richard Strauss, Ravel & Debussy, César Franck, d'Indy and the Russian 5, turn up in this Exotic thread.
Apart from Van Hoof's symphony, written in 1941 and thus inspired by the war, the other works are sunny, lyrical
honest, quite "simple" evocations of Belgian / Flemish/Kempish landscapes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campine.
There are no palm trees, camels, belly dancing, scantily clad houris or peris to be seen in the province of Antwerp...
Meulemans symphony ("Swan fen") refers to a park near the city of Turnhout and the village of Arendonk, close to the Dutch border: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwaneven


On cd 1 (music by Benoit, Mortelmans and de Vocht) there's more sturdy historicizing, praying & religious suffering and a great romantic cello concerto dating from 1955.

With a view to clarifying his concerto, De Vocht wrote the following text:

'The first movement, Allegro deciso, expresses the urge for decisive, strong-willed innovation from which an enthusiastic lyricism originates. The principal theme, an energetic exhortation on the four notes a-d-e-a becomes, in adapted form, the cornerstone of the last movement too.

The key motif of the Lento, initially hesitant and recurring with more urgency each time after pauses of silence, is followed by a melancholy but passionate cantilena, such as a cello is eminently suitable to express. Then again the painful melancholy is dissolved by the violins, acting like a ray of sunshine. Everything now becomes emotion, flowing into a serene final hymn, in which the principal theme, now with a merry touch, is being elaborated as a canon.

The Allegro vivace – Presto is the stream of vital fullness that the two main elements of the work are drawn into, intertwined in a discharge of joy.'

Belgian composers, of course, didn't escape the lures of exoticism.
Karel Candael (1883-1948) wrote a biblical ballet on the Song of songs and M'bali, a piano piece inspired by Africa. Flor Alpaerts (1876-1954) wrote two large symphonic poems "Cyrus" and "Psyche", Jean De Middeleer (1908-1986) a "Congo-symphony", Jean Absil (1893-1974) a Brazilian rhapsody, Robert Herberigs (1886-1974) Anthony and Cleopatra, August de Boeck a Dahomeyan rhapsody, Norbert Rosseau (1907-1975) Rousslane for orchestra, Edgar Tinel (1854-1912), a Polyeucte suite ....etc.

Flor Alpaerts' Salome is a very well behaved girl: "Dinner is ready, sir".

https://www.youtube.com/v/JO7nbbMV0GM

Thank you for the informative review. It is insightful and very helpful. Also, I liked the music of Salome.
I must be a lunatic to call the music exotic, but exoticism could be based on subject as well as object.
I will check out works by the composers you mentioned while I am listening to works by de Boeck, van Hoof, etc. now.
Thanks a lot.

[pjme]

"Thank you for the informative review. It is insightful and very helpful. Also, I liked the music of Salome.
I must be a lunatic to call the music exotic, but exoticism could be based on subject as well as object.
I will check out works by the composers you mentioned while I am listening to works by de Boeck, van Hoof, etc. now.
Thanks a lot."

You're not lunatic at all! Belgium can be, in spite of its size, geography and history, (often entertainingly) exotic, indeed surrealistic.
As for the composers I mentioned: it will be difficult to find recordings. National radio (VRT & RTBF) disbanded the broadcasting orchestras and choirs years ago and the focus has shifted to Renaissance and Baroque music.
The NIR/BRT/BRTN/VRT  (Flemish radio & TV) orchestra continues as the Brussels Philharmonic, the RTBF (French/Walloon national Radio & TV) orchestra doesn't exist anymore.
As in many other European countries, romantic, late-romantic, "impressionistic and expressionistic" composers (that are, admittedly, not Mahler, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Schoenberg....) fell out of favor in Belgium.
In the 20th century, conductors such as Daniel Sternefeld, Franz André , André Cluytens, André Vandernoot, René Defossez and Fernand Quinet conducted and recorded the music of their contemporaries.
The Antwerp SO started some years ago (then Antwerp Philharmonic) a (modest) cd series with music by Flemish composers, but I fear that it is discontinued.
The Phaedra label offers a quite impressive collection of Belgo-flemish music. it is now distributed by Dutch Music Works.
https://phaedra-inflandersfields.bandcamp.com/
On YT, there's a "crazy" guy, Remus Platen who has a huge collection of old radio broadcasts . He has some music by Defossez, Brenta, Meulemans, Herberigs, Pelemans, Peeters etc.

Meulemans pianoconcerto nr. 1 : https://youtu.be/0m-c35AsA3g
Defossez pianoconcerto nr. 1: https://youtu.be/udHa9eWFRGo

[pjme]

Belgian musical surrealism:

Belgium is a bilingual country. Today even, with a very small German speaking community, officially trilingual. I'll spare you the more complicated details. Read more at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Belgium#Postwar_Belgium

In 1930 Belgian National Radio becomes a (bilingual) reality. The N.I.R. /I.N.R. is created: the National Institute for Radio broadcasting /  Institut National de Radiodiffusion.
The BBC serves as a model.
From Februari  1931 on,  three conductors are installed: Franz André, Jean Kumps and Arthur Meulemans. Apparently, Désiré Defauw acts also as "artistic advisor" .
Three orchestras are formed: a Symphony Orchestra, a Radio Orchestra and  the "Klein Orkest", a small orchestra.
After many problems, changes and quarrels a Large Symphony Orchestra of the N.I.R.-I.N.R. is created in 1935 , with Franz André as conductor:
Inspired by Paul Collaer, the Large S.O. expands its repertoire and performs numerous contemporary compositions: Krenek, Malipiero, Milhaud, Bartok, Schönberg, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Koechlin. And, of course, many works by Belgian composers: Marcel Poot, Arthur Meulemans, Paul Gilson, August Baeyens, Karel Albert, Karel Candael, Michel Brusselmans, Jef Van Hoof, Edgard Tinel, Jules Strens etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Collaer
Franz André retires in 1958, but conducts regularly as guest.
In 1960 the broadcasting institute is split and the stations become respectively BRT and RTB ( Belgian Radio and TV / Radio et Tv Belge).
In 1957 Daniel Sternefeld becomes chief conductor of the  (combined) BRT-RTB Groot Symfonisch Orkest (Grand Orchestre Symphonique de la RTB-BRT). He remains  untill 1971. He is followed by Irwin Hoffman [1973-76].
The Large Orchestra is split.
In 1977 RTB becomes RTBF (F= Français). The Nouvel Orchestre Symphonique de la RTBF is created. Edgard Doneux is chief conductor. In 1984 this orchestra is renamed Orchestre Symphonique de la RTBF and Alfred Walter becomes chief.
In 1978 the BRT orchestra is renamed as BRT Filharmonisch Orkest.
In 1988 Alexander Rahbari becomes chief –conductor.
In 1991 BRT becomes BRTN (N= Nederlands= Flemish) In 1997 BRTN becomes VRT, Vlaamse Radio en Televisieomroep.
Also in 1991 the Orchestre Symphonique de la RTBF is definitively dismantled.
In 1998 the BRTN orchestra is renamed as Vlaams Omroeporkest (VRO / Flemish Broadcasting Orchestra) and Yoel Levi becomes its chief conductor.
In that same year the orchestra is detached from the broadcasting organisation and restarts –in 2008 - as Brussels Philharmonic. Michel Tabachnik is followed by Stéphane Denève.

Marcel Poot: Légende épique : https://youtu.be/KXiZORdGWuw
Bohuslav Martinu: Double concerto, piano, strings & timpani : https://youtu.be/RD8LzvwcBNs
And - because it is International women's day:
Nini Bulterys (1929-1989): pianoconcerto https://youtu.be/ZGWxNmUnbNw

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Some names sound familiar. Now I am listening to albums of the Anthology of Flemish Music series (Marco Polo) and In Flanders' Fields series (Phaedra).
Great, and again exotic, music.