Music from Belgium

[pjme]

Quite an interesting group of (mostly) late Romantic composers on that  MSR Classics CD with Jeffrey Powers

Meulemans, A: Prelude for Horn and Piano
Mortelmans: Lyrical Pastoral
Poot: Legend for Horn and Piano
Eechaute: Night Poem for Horn and Piano
Westerlinck: Maclou for Horn Solo
Gilson: Five Preludes for Horn and Piano
Ryelandt: Sonata for Horn and Piano, Op. 18

Jeffrey Powers, Principal Horn of the Waco Symphony Orchestra and former Professor of Horn, Baylor University School of Music, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with "Honors in Music" from Austin College in Sherman, Texas and a Master of Music in Horn from The Cleveland Institute of Music. His major instructors were James London of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Albert Schmitter and Myron Bloom of The Cleveland Orchestra, and Roy Waas of the Buffalo Philharmonic. Having begun his career as second horn in The Hong Kong Philharmonic, Mr. Powers then served as second horn in the New Jersey Symphony, fourth horn in the Philharmonic of Caracas, Venezuela, and fourth horn and Wagner tuba in The Cleveland Orchestra.
He then played Principal horn for sixteen years with the Royal Philharmonic of Flanders, Antwerp, Belgium and taught horn, chamber music, and transposition at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven, Belgium. Presently Mr. Powers is also Principal Horn with the Abilene Philharmonic as well as the Waco Symphony Orchestra. He has five solo CD's released to date.  "Let All That Hath Breath Praise the Lord – Music of Praise for Horn", "Into the 21st Century – Music for horn and piano by Baldwin, Bentzon, Pilss and Vignery", "In a Lyrical way – Music for Horn and Piano by Flemish Masters" and "Steppingstones for Horn, Volume I and Volume II.
 

Prosper Van Eechautes Night poem exists also in an orchestral version,.

Robert Herberigs (Straussian) "Cyrano de Bergerac" for horn and orchestra, has gotten some attention and was recorded by André Van Driessche

[pjme]

For those who might like Legley's spikey style, the inscrutable YouTube mogul Remus Platen has several of Legleys symphonies.

[vandermolen]

From WAYLTN thread:
Godfried Devreese: Symphony No.1 'Gothic Symphony'
A fine, oddly moving work as is 'In Memoriam':

[Roy Bland]

From WAYLTN thread:
Godfried Devreese: Symphony No.1 'Gothic Symphony'
A fine, oddly moving work as is 'In Memoriam':

Sadly after the death of  son he seems completely forgotten

[pjme]

Sadly after the death of  son he seems completely forgotten

His entire symphonic oeuvre could easily be compiled on 2 or 3 cds....

apart from the Gothic, he wrote 3 more symphonies

a Goethe symphony (1952-1955), with chorus (prop. nr. 2)
I wasn' able to locate nr. 3
a 4th symphony is mentioned as being written in 1966
pianoconcerto (1938)
2 violinconcerti (1937,1970)
a cello concertino (at least two different orchestrations)
Sinfonietta for strings (1962)
concertante works for clarinet, trumpet
Symphonic variations on a Scottish folksong (1923)
Several works for brass (with or without percussions) 
Suite for orchestra (1953)

[Roy Bland]

His entire symphonic oeuvre could easily be compiled on 2 or 3 cds....

apart from the Gothic, he wrote 3 more symphonies

a Goethe symphony (1952-1955), with chorus (prop. nr. 2)
I wasn' able to locate nr. 3
a 4th symphony is mentioned as being written in 1966
pianoconcerto (1938)
2 violinconcerti (1937,1970)
a cello concertino (at least two different orchestrations)
Sinfonietta for strings (1962)
concertante works for clarinet, trumpet
Symphonic variations on a Scottish folksong (1923)
Several works for brass (with or without percussions)
Suite for orchestra (1953)

this remark can be extended to the entire Belgian orchestral production of the last century. Apart from Naxos synthetistes there is nothing

[vandermolen]

Sadly after the death of  son he seems completely forgotten

Yes, I noticed that as well. His son is the conductor on the CD.

I'd love to hear a more modern recording of The Gothic Symphony and In Memoriam.

[pjme]

Not quite new - propably recorded in 2023, released in 2024: 3 string quartets by Flor Alpaerts ( (Antwerpen, 12 september 1876 - 5 oktober 1954).
Anyway: happy birthday, Flor!i wish his ealy symphonic works (ca 1900-1915) would be recorded: a Spring symphony (with"vocal" finale), Psyche and Cyrus, large symphonic poems after Louis Couperus;Still it is good to have his chamber music in modern performnces. The cd cover art is ok.... but basically misleading. Alpaerts is a late Romantic, who knew d'Indy, Humperdinck, Respighi etc. He performed janacek's glagolitic mass and Szymanowsky's Stabat Mater, works by Milhaud, Malipiero and Jacques Ibert...!
So, a painting by Emile Claus or floris Jespers would be better....

[Symphonic Addict]

Quirky quartets those full of good humour. I wish they had recorded all of his quartets.

[Roy Bland]

[Symphonic Addict]

Three relatively recent important discoveries:

On most of listeners, Jean Rogister (1879-1964) may not ring a bell. In fact, his discography seems scarce when compared to others of his compatriots. Other than a composer, he was a teacher and a violist too. Amongst his several compositions, we have this Symphony for string quartet and orchestra and Fantaisie Burlesque for violin and orchestra, which gave me a quite strong impression. The Symphony in three substantial movements (1942-43) doesn't sound like the style of any other composer as far as I am concerned. Its idiom is like post-Franckian, late-Romantic, featuring some chromatic harmonies, but its mood is severe most of the time, reflective, heartfelt, almost tragic, yet rather sincere in the end. The incorporation of a string quartet provides more gravitas, intimacy and thoughtfulness to the musical canvas, and once in a while it conveys some spicy gestures for some necessary contrast. This is the kind of work that requires many listens before it reveals its secrets. Really an absorbing and unique piece. He wrote other two symphonies for orchestral forces alone which I'd love to hear.

The Fantaisie Burlesque (1928), as its title indicates, inhabits the opposite sound world of the symphony: extroverted, fun, with lots of colour and some glittering fantasy-like passages, albeit not devoid of moments of tender lyricism where a solo violin is featured. An impressive creation that doesn't go unnoticed at all.




The other work I want to mention is the symphonic poem Pallieter (1921) by Flor Alpaerts, who happens to be a contemporary of Rogister (Flor's dates are 1876-1954). What a superb treat this work is! It's suffused with some of the most glistening orchestration I've come across lately, almost on par (or practically at the same level) with what composers like Respighi achieved in that matter. It's an absolute sound feast, and the music is unbelievably lovely, sumptuous, atmospheric, joyful, gorgeous in spades. Pieces with this tremendous spark and orchestral colour is one of my biggest weaknesses in music. Just magnificent in every possible way.

[Roy Bland]

and

Guillaume Lekeu, César Franck, Léon Jongen, Michel Lysight and Frederik van Rossum.

[pjme]

Yesterday: De Grote Kerk in Den Bosch (Netherlands) for a concert of November Music 2025

https://www.novembermusic.net/

Premiere of "Lure" a short (ca 5-6 mins.) by Genevieve Murphy, scored for 3 brass(trumpet, french horn, trombone), 2 percussion and bagpipes.

https://genevieve-murphy.com/about/biography/

I went for a rare performance of Luc Brewaeys (1959 - 2015)  "Talisker" (1993) scored for clarinet, contrabasclarinet, french horn and two solo percussionists
+clarinet choir : : 2 E-flat Clars., 12 B-flat Clars., 3 Alto Clars., 4 Bass Clars., 1 Contrabassclarinet.
+6 percussionists

" This work is the second in a series of pieces named after single malt whiskies.
It was commissioned for the opening concert of Antwerp Cultural Capital of Europe 1993 which had to take place in the enormous hall of the Antwerp Central Station. This building has an extremely long reverberation time of around 7 seconds, there are lots of stairs and galleries, so the idea was to make a work in which the building was integrated. I quite rapidly chose for the homogeneous orchestral sound of a clarinet choir, with some soloists and percussionists. About half of the clarinet choir plays from a gallery while the remainder is situated with the soloists in the center of the hall itself, more or less as in a normal concert situation.The music starts with the 5 soloists only (the percussionists playing on 18 Gongs), quite surprizingly as a chamber piece which takes quite some time when suddenly the 6 orchestral percussionists drop a pair of cymbals on the floor and the full clarinet choir makes its entrance. Many multiphonics follow and have a first culmination in a fast percussion passage. Next comes a sequence of quasi-cadenzas for the contrabassclarinet, the clarinet and finally the horn and again the percussionists make a loud entrance on bell-like instruments, after some 10 minutes of silence. Because of the acoustic specificities of the hall the music evolves quite slowly. Near the end 6 clarinets play low D's with their bell on timpani while moving up and down the timpani pedals, which gives an amazing phasing effect, amplified by the hall's reverberation. Meanwhile, the other clarinettists move and walk around while playing as -slowly- everyone gets more or less together for a final kind of culminating march.". 

In spite of its name the grote Kerk in Den Bosch isn't actually that large, but the acoustics were good and the performance by
the Belgian ensemble i Solisti , HIIIT (formerly known as slagwerk Den Haag) and at least 22 clarinetists from the Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels conservatoria, conducted by Philip Rathé was precise and deeply commited.

Murphys "Lure" worked well as an introduction but inevitably paled in contrast to Brewaeys 30 minute massive ritual. The quasi-cadenzas for basclarinet, clarinet and horn are breathtaking in every sense of the word.

https://www.lucbrewaeys.com/works-chronological/talisker
https://www.isolisti.be/nl/team
https://matrix-new-music.be/en/publications/flemish-composers-database/rathe-filip/

[André]

Three relatively recent important discoveries:

On most of listeners, Jean Rogister (1879-1964) may not ring a bell. In fact, his discography seems scarce when compared to others of his compatriots. Other than a composer, he was a teacher and a violist too. Amongst his several compositions, we have this Symphony for string quartet and orchestra and Fantaisie Burlesque for violin and orchestra, which gave me a quite strong impression. The Symphony in three substantial movements (1942-43) doesn't sound like the style of any other composer as far as I am concerned. Its idiom is like post-Franckian, late-Romantic, featuring some chromatic harmonies, but its mood is severe most of the time, reflective, heartfelt, almost tragic, yet rather sincere in the end. The incorporation of a string quartet provides more gravitas, intimacy and thoughtfulness to the musical canvas, and once in a while it conveys some spicy gestures for some necessary contrast. This is the kind of work that requires many listens before it reveals its secrets. Really an absorbing and unique piece. He wrote other two symphonies for orchestral forces alone which I'd love to hear.

The Fantaisie Burlesque (1928), as its title indicates, inhabits the opposite sound world of the symphony: extroverted, fun, with lots of colour and some glittering fantasy-like passages, albeit not devoid of moments of tender lyricism where a solo violin is featured. An impressive creation that doesn't go unnoticed at all.




The other work I want to mention is the symphonic poem Pallieter (1921) by Flor Alpaerts, who happens to be a contemporary of Rogister (Flor's dates are 1876-1954). What a superb treat this work is! It's suffused with some of the most glistening orchestration I've come across lately, almost on par (or practically at the same level) with what composers like Respighi achieved in that matter. It's an absolute sound feast, and the music is unbelievably lovely, sumptuous, atmospheric, joyful, gorgeous in spades. Pieces with this tremendous spark and orchestral colour is one of my biggest weaknesses in music. Just magnificent in every possible way.

I have a few discs of Rogister's music (including that symphony) and I absolutely love them. Symphony, smaller orchestral works, string quartets: I recommend them all. Wonderful composer.