Late Romantic music from Belgium

[Roy Bland]

[Roy Bland]

Could be on cd perhaps Pjme knows

[Roy Bland]

Post here not sure it's proper

https://www.belgianbrass.be/en/cds/

[Roy Bland]

More IT

[Roy Bland]

[pjme]

Could be on cd perhaps Pjme knows

Alas, this sounds to me as a rather semi-professional performance and recording.I do not know if it was issued on cd.

"Herman Roelstraete studied at the Lemmens Institute, where, via Jules Van Nuffel he familiarised himself with the work of the Flemish polyphonists, and also at the conservatories of Brussels and Ghent. Subsequently he was a teacher and the director of several music academies.

Roelstraete left behind a varied oeuvre of about 160 opus numbers, representing virtually all genres with the exception of opera. His particular attention was given to choral music, for which he used texts by authors like Albrecht Rodenbach, Paul Van Ostaijen and Anton Van Wilderode. He kept in close touch with plenty of amateur choirs, both accompanying and advising them. In his native region he collected popular songs, several of which he turned into arrangements of his own. Additionally he put much energy into musicological research concerning Flemish composers who had lapsed into oblivion and he also founded and conducted several vocal and instrumental ensembles specialising in the performance of Flemish music.

As a conductor he was strongly committed to the work of Krafft, Peter Benoit and Edgar Tinel. In 1967 the city of Antwerp and the Peter Benoit Foundation awarded him the Peter Benoit Prize for his performance of Benoit's Drama Christi and in 1983 the Belgian music press gave him the 'Snepvangers' prize for his recording of Benoit's Requiem with the Kortrijk Mixed Choir and the choir and orchestra of the Belgian Radio and Television Broadcasting Corporation.

In 1978 Roelstraete founded 'Musica Flandrorum', a cultural organisation which promoted Flemish music through musicological research, a chamber choir and a music publishing company."

This (miniature) Symphonia concertante reminds me of Hindemith.

Herman Roelstraete information at Matrix Music center

[Roy Bland]

TNX

[Roy Bland]

Surely not this "Group of Seven" not "Synthetists" considered themselves late romantic .However more details about them would be precious understanding belgian music.Pjme please could you help?

https://www.arllfb.be/ebibliotheque/seancespubliques/06032004/haine.pdf

[Roy Bland]

Very beautiful music as far as I could hear sadly only in a very old lp

[Roy Bland]

Not all late romantic

[pjme]

Surely not this "Group of Seven" not "Synthetists" considered themselves late romantic .However more details about them would be precious understanding belgian music.Pjme please could you help?

https://www.arllfb.be/ebibliotheque/seancespubliques/06032004/haine.pdf

Hi, it isn't easy to find good information on these composers. It is a period in Belgian music history that- apparently - isn't well researched.

However, Les Synthétistes that's easy, they are :

René Bernier (1905–1984)
Francis de Bourguignon (1890–1961)
Gaston Brenta (1902–1969)
Théo De Joncker (1894–1964)
Robert Otlet
Marcel Poot (1901–1988)
Maurice Schoemaker (1890–1964)
Jules Strens (1893–1971).

"Notons aussi qu'à l'image du Groupe des Six, Mesens a rassemblé autour de lui en 1920 un
 « Groupe des sept », formé de musiciens flamands modernes d'une renommée beaucoup plus modeste et plus limitée dans le temps que leur parangon français.
Karel Albert est l'un des membres de ce groupe"

In Flavie Roquets massive "Lexicon van Vlaamse componisten geboren na 1800" (Flemish only) Karel Albert, August Baeyens and Willem Pelemans are mentioned as a first group of composers who reacted violently against flemish romanticism - after WW1.
They organised a concert in Brussels -anno 1922 - with their own work and compositions by Hervé Claus, Jules Gien, Lode Vets, E.L.T.Mesens, Georges Monier and August L.Baeyens.
Possibly you could contact mrs. Roquet yourself. She gives the folowing adresses
F.Roquet
Bruggestraat 21
8830 Hooglede
Belgium
flavie@pandora.be

Aha - look : under Lodewijk (Lode) Vets, I find the following in Roquets Lexicon:

"He was member of a group modernist flemish composers, 'Groupe des sept' gathered around E.L.T.Mesens: Karel Albert (pseudonym K.Victors), August Baeyens, Hervé Claus (pseudonym U.S.Alck),Jules Gien en George Monier"


The Internet archive has some Albert:

https://archive.org/details/cd_koetsier-novak-feld-albert-compositions_jan-koetsier-jan-novak-jindrich-feld-karel/disc1/05.+Karel+Albert+-+Dansende+Beeldekens+-+II.flac

https://archive.org/details/cd_koetsier-albert-hoof-jongen-compositions_jan-koetsier-karel-albert-jef-van-hoof-leo/disc1/03.+Karel+Albert+-+The+Animals'+Play%2C+Suite+For+Orch..flac

https://archive.org/details/cd_haba-ostijn-albert-rossum-compositions_alois-haba-willy-ostijn-karel-albert-frede/disc1/03.+Karel+Albert+-+Flemish+Suite+For+Orch..flac

https://archive.org/details/cd_krol-albert-henkemans-thomas-flothuis-comp_bernard-krol-karel-albert-hans-henkemans-k/disc1/02.+Karel+Albert+-+Julius+Caesar+Overture.flac

https://archive.org/details/cd_chevreville-vermeulen-albert-absil-tansman_raymond-chevreville-matthias-vermeulen-kar/disc1/03.+Karel+Albert+-+Mariekenvan+Nymegen+Overture.flac

[Roy Bland]

A lot of thanks!

Interesting!
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/210600961.pdf

[joachim]

It seems to me that no one has yet quoted Adolphe Biarent, Walloon composer born in 1871 and died in 1916.

Member of the Walloon School, Biarent received his musical education at the conservatories of Brussels and Ghent, then became a professor at the Music Academy of Charleroi, where he remained until his death.

Completely devoted to his duties as a teacher, he devoted himself relatively little to composition.

His work includes a few melodies, pieces for piano (Preludes "Middle Ages"), a little chamber music (Quintet for piano and strings, sonata for cello and piano) and above all a dozen symphonic works, including:

Walloon Rhapsody for piano and orchestra
Heroic poem for large orchestra
Symphony in D minor
Trenmor, symphonic poem
Tale of the Orient, suite
Sonnets for cello and orchestra

[pjme]

Over the years, Biarent has been mentioned positively a few times - both for chamber music and orchestral rarities....
Popular??? I doubt it! And not much has been (re-)recorded.

October 23, 2013

Adolphe Biarrent may appeal to lovers of Franck and d'Indy/


From Wiki:

Adolphe Biarent (16 October 1871 – 4 February 1916) was a Belgian composer, conductor, cellist and music teacher.
Biarent studied at the conservatories of Brussels and of Ghent, and was a pupil of Émile Mathieu. He won a Belgian Prix de Rome with his cantata Oedipe à Colone in 1901, after which he remained near his home in Charleroi, composing, conducting and teaching (or more accurately, engaging in pedagogy, for example the writing of manuals as well) (in which subject he had, for teacher, Fernand Quinet [1]).[2]
Although still little known now, Biarent composed music that successfully combines "the structural solidity" of César Franck and Vincent d'Indy with "something of the orchestral brilliance and clarity" of Emmanuel Chabrier.

His "Contes d'orient" is a substantial orchestral fantasy – think of Sheherazade meets Cesar Franck.
"Le réveil d'un dieu" for cello and orchestra is based on a (grandly pompous) poem by José-Maria de Hérédia :

La chevelure éparse et la gorge meurtrie,
Irritant par les pleurs l'ivresse de leurs sens,
Les femmes de Byblos, en lugubres accents,
Mènent la funéraire et lente théorie.

Car sur le lit jonché d'anémone fleurie
Où la Mort avait clos ses longs yeux languissants,
Repose, parfumé d'aromate et d'encens,
Le jeune homme adoré des vierges de Syrie.

Jusqu'à l'aurore ainsi le choeur s'est lamenté,
Mais voici qu'il s'éveille à l'appel d'Astarté,
L'Epoux mystérieux que le cinname arrose.

Il est ressuscité, l'antique adolescent !
Et le ciel tout en fleur semble une immense rose
Qu'un Adonis céleste a teinte de son sang.

With disheveled hair and bruised throat,
Irritating with tears the intoxication of their senses,
The women of Byblos, in lugubrious accents,
Lead the funeral and slow theory.

Because on the bed strewn with flowering anemone
Where Death had closed his long, languid eyes,
Rests, perfumed with herbs and incense,
The young man adored by the virgins of Syria.

Until dawn the choir thus lamented,
But now he wakes up at Astarte's call,
The mysterious Bridegroom sprinkled with cinnamon.

He is risen, the ancient adolescent!
And the blooming sky looks like a huge rose
That a celestial Adonis has stained with his blood.

[pjme]

A lot of thanks!

Interesting!
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/210600961.pdf

Thanks for this very interesting article!
Peter

[joachim]

Thanks for your reply, pjme.

There is a CD of symphonic works and a CD of chamber music works.

[pjme]

Sinfonie à grand orchestre - "Symphonie fantastique" (1836, inspirée de la symphonie éponyme de Berlioz)

Never heard of Etienne Soubre!

Elder brother of the painter Charles Soubre and father of six children including Charles E. Soubre, Étienne Joseph Soubre entered the Liège Conservatory in 1827, the year of its creation, and studied harmony, counterpoint and fugue there. At eighteen, appointed assistant professor of music theory. In 1841, he won the Belgian Prix de Rome with the cantata Sardanapale. After having travelled, under the rules of the Competition which had granted him a pension of 2,500 francs for four years, he returned to Belgium in 1844 and settled in Brussels where he devoted himself to teaching. He was best known in his day as a choral composer.

His Hymne à Godefroid de Bouillon for choir and orchestra was performed in Antwerp by 1,500 performers from 46 Belgian, German and Dutch lyrical societies on August 19, 1850. For several years, he took over the direction of the Philharmonic Society of Brussels. In 1861, he was appointed by the government as inspector of elementary music courses in middle schools; but the following year, he was called to direct the Liège Conservatory, replacing Louis-Joseph Daussoigne-Méhul.

[pjme]

Thanks for your reply, pjme.

There is a CD of symphonic works and a CD of chamber music works.

Merci beaucoup Joachim.

Are there other composers you particularly like?

[Roy Bland]

Beautiful Biarent's orientalist piece
TNX

[Roy Bland]