Late Romantic music from Belgium

Started by pjme, December 16, 2007, 01:06:14 PM

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André

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 14, 2021, 06:11:36 AM
Solid performance of August De Boeck and Paul Gilson. Nice coupling and lovely disc.


+ 1. I also have De Zee (The Sea) in another version, but I think this one is better.

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

Quote from: pjme on April 14, 2021, 06:31:32 AM

Robert Herberigs, Prosper van Eechaute, Arthur Meulemans and Marinus de Jong.

Of these 4, van Eechaute is the least well known (imho). And forgotten...
https://www.svm.be/content/van-eechaute-prosper?display=biography&language=en
https://youtu.be/MOwRzXiJlsA

Meulemans isn't totally unknown on GMG. Huge oeuvre (cfr Milhaud and Martinu), he wrote in almost every genre, from simple folksy/nationalistic/religious songs, to huge symphonies (15!) operas, oratoria, chamber music, concerti.... As with most his direct contemporaries: too "modern" for his late Romantic teachers, far too romantic & tonal for the 1950-1960 generation. The fact that he kept on working during WWII (out of need to feed his family...), tainted his reputation.
https://www.svm.be/content/meulemans-arthur?display=biography&language=en
https://youtu.be/xPyvE7-qh1c

I rather like Robert Herberigs. A "burgundian, Brueghelian" type, also a writer and a painter... with an apricot plantation in the south of France. What I know of him is big, bold, often very dramatic, very colorfull. The late symphonic poems are all "heavily" orchestrated. He loved Ravel and Richard Strauss. In 1948-1949 he wrote a very monumental score for Het Lam Gods spel - an open air evocation of Van Eyck's Ghent altar piece.
https://www.svm.be/content/herberigs-robert?display=biography&language=en
https://youtu.be/ymkTef8z6BY
Marinus de Jong is my least favorite composer of these 4. He had a profound knowledge of all the technical wizardries of composing... remains quite dull to my ears.
https://www.svm.be/content/de-jong-marinus?display=biography&language=en

https://youtu.be/NqynrD9yMUE
https://youtu.be/32fl7uEl06w


While I liked all the works, I especially enjoyed the works by Herberigs, Meulemans and de Jong. Possibly, the composition by Meulemans could be the strongest. van Eechaute was fine, but the music was broad and abstract. I need to listen to it a few more times.
Now listening to Pages Intimes/ Joseph Jongen. Likable disc.

André

Very fine indeed. That label's discs of Ysaÿe works are excellent, too.

Florestan

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

André

These two, plus his opera Piére li houyeû (Pierre the Coal Miner). Beautiful albums in deluxe presentation, too !

Florestan

Quote from: André on April 15, 2021, 12:44:42 PM
Beautiful albums in deluxe presentation, too !

Yep, but the covers are a torture for my Romanian eyes and neck.  :D
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

Thanks a lot, gents. I don't know the music of Ysaÿe. I will look for the recordings!

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

I was listening to this recording of A. Meulemans this weekend. Such an exciting and fun music. Glad I bought the disc.

Roy Bland

I am not sure all from Belgium and all lare romantic

kyjo

#69
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 23, 2021, 07:54:02 PMI was listening to this recording of A. Meulemans this weekend. Such an exciting and fun music. Glad I bought the disc.

I was listening to this disc a couple weeks ago. Really delightful short orchestral works (some with soloists), above all the Kermis Fantasie, Woudzag en Zigeurnerin for violin and orchestra, Rhapsodie for clarinet and orchestra, and Exotische Dans. I also listened recently to the Marco Polo disc of his 2nd and 3rd Symphonies and tone poem Pliny's Fountain - really fine impressionistic music, beautifully orchestrated. Meulemans is a significant voice and deserves more systematic treatment by the record companies!
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

Quote from: kyjo on December 02, 2022, 01:56:52 PMI was listening to this disc a couple weeks ago. Really delightful short orchestral works (some with soloists), above all the Kermis Fantasie, Woudzag en Zigeurnerin for violin and orchestra, Rhapsodie for clarinet and orchestra, and Exotische Dans. I also listened recently to the Marco Polo disc of his 2nd and 3rd Symphonies and tone poem Pliny's Fountain - really fine impressionistic music, beautifully orchestra. Meulemans is a significant voice and deserves more systematic treatment by the record companies!

Thank you. Enjoyed reading your opinion. Yes, I love the Marco Polo disc as well. So many geniuses in such a geographically small country.

Roy Bland


Dry Brett Kavanaugh

^ Looks nice, Roy. I will check it out!

Roy Bland

#73






Scion7

#74
Quote from: Roy Bland on December 06, 2022, 05:41:05 PMARMAND MARSICK - "Three Symphonic Poems" - Orchestre Philharmonie de Lorraine /Houtmann (Koch)

This one - long out of print - would be nice to see on Spotify, if thou wouldst?  ;D

Or YouTube.
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Roy Bland


pjme

#76
Quote from: Roy Bland on November 30, 2022, 08:05:41 PMI am not sure all from Belgium and all lare romantic


These are all Belgian composers. Of these 4, Raymond Chevreuille may have written the most "attractive" music. He can be as quircky and light as Poulenc or Jean Françaix but - especially in his symphonies - the influence of Stravinsky, Bartok and Berg can be noticed. Several are on YT.
I hope that sooner or later his (short) but exuberant trumpet concerto will get a good recording. There is an old performance in the radio archives by Maurice André and Franz André (no relation). The concerto for saxophone, piano and orchestra is very enjoyable and the orchestral suite Brueghel, painter of the humble cries out for a state of the art performance and recording...
Here it is in an old LP recording by Daniel Sternefeld and the NOB.
https://archive.org/details/lp_brueghel-peintre-des-humbles-suite-symphon_raymond-chevreuille-august-baeyens-orchest_3/disc1/01.01.+Fanfare+a+la+gloire+de+Brueghel%3B+Le+Repas+de+noces.mp3

Van Hove is still very active and his most recent symphony (nr. 4) is here



Renier Van der Velden can be called an expressionist. He was also a conductor and worked for the radio. Not many works have ever been performed or recorded.


Jules Strens is in my view the least well known even if his Danse funambulesque for large symphonic wind band was recorded in the US;


http://www.hafabramusic.com/biography/304/nl

pjme


Dry Brett Kavanaugh


Symphonic Addict

#79
This CD contains the 'Homeric Symphony' and two tone poems 'Morgenstemming' (Morning Mood) and 'Mythe der Lente' (Myth of Spring) by Lodewijk Mortelmans (1868-1952). I remember listening to the Symphony several years ago finding it uninteresting and ordinary, but now my impressions are much more positive, except for the last movement whose inspiration is not up to the other three movements. As its title indicates, the Symphony has a programmatic character based on Mortelman's impressions about Homer's the Iliad and the Odyssey. The other two tone poems hold very well too, featured by having graceful beauty and lush orchestration in a very late-Romantic spirit. A most enjoyable program. I like when this little-known stuff is brought to life in good recordings like this even though it is not necessarily masterful or disruptive in any way.

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