Today marks the start of Belgian Music Week once again. Composers and artists from our own country take center stage. On this first day here at Klassiek Centraal, we focus on "Belgian Romanticism on piano". Through five composers and two new albums, we explore a century of piano music.
Naruhiko Kawaguchi — joint winner of the MA Competition 2016 — performs Flemish piano music from the Romantic era on pianoforte. His album Au clair de la lune was released in collaboration with the Study Centre for Flemish Music, and Jan de Wilde of SVM provided the text in the booklet. The result brings together well-known and lesser-known names. Peter Benoit (1834-1901) is accompanied by three other composers.
Kawaguchi opens his new album with music by Charles Louis Hanssens (1802-1871). His Concerto pour le piano forte (1839) is heard here in an arrangement for piano and string quintet. This adaptation was arranged by the composer himself, as was the custom of the time. This chamber music version illustrates the delicate, Chopin-like virtuosity and brings the concerto into the salons. The concerto is through-composed in one movement with sections flowing organically into one another. Hanssens demonstrates his mastery of brilliant melodies with variations. Hanssens was a leading composer in shaping the Belgian musical landscape, and this concerto reveals how he achieved that status.
From one great name to another. After Hanssens come three works by Benoit. One of these is Troisieme fantaisie op.18 (1860) [track 03]. In this fantasy we hear a musical style that echoes in a lesser-known contemporary. The contrast between hammering passages alternating with light-as-a-feather lyricism also resonates in Au clair de la lune. Impromptu op.17 (1866?) [track 06] by Philippe Vanden Berghe (1822-1885). This dynamic approach recalls Baroque terraced dynamics, but the sonorous harmony is unmistakably Romantic. It gives the music vitality and strength.
The Caprice sur la romance flamande (before 1855) [track 05] is the centerpiece of this CD. The work is by Jean Vanderheyden (1823-1889), a student of Pierre Zimmerman who also taught Charles Gounod and César Franck, among others. Vanderheyden composed primarily for the home and brought larger genres into the salon through arrangements. The selected Caprice is a fine example of this. It consists of variations on the Flemish tune Roosje uit de dalen by Antwerp carillonneur Jan Frans Volckerick (1815-1897). The appeal of this work lies in the balance between lyrical and virtuosic playing. Kawaguchi's interpretation is tasteful and intimate. Perfect for a salon setting.
Pianist Ivan Ilić has brought music from across the language border. He presents an album filled with piano preludes by Walloon composer Joseph Jongen (1875-1953). This Liège composer amassed an impressive body of work during his lifetime. Yet nowadays few of his scores see the light of day. Possibly because he had less influence than his Liège colleague César Franck. Ilić disproves this reasoning with this album.
Jongen composed six opus of preludes, including two collections: 13 Préludes, Op.69 (1922) and 24 Petits Préludes dans tout les tons, Op.116 (1940-41). The first collection from 1922 marks an important turning point in Jongen's compositional style. His early works show considerable influence from Fauré. But from 1922 onwards, starting with this prelude collection, Jongen seems to have found his own voice and style.
The heading "Inquiétude" is certainly not incorrectly chosen for the first prelude. The constant stream of notes in the right hand and rapid chords in the left hand give this section an unsettled character. The unusual 5/4 meter (sometimes interrupted by a 3/2 broadening) also creates an uncomfortable sense of time. There's always one extra group of notes. This collection does not open with a bravura piece of impressive virtuosity. Yet this opener is certainly just as technically challenging. If not more so. The pianist must not lose himself in the unstable flow of the music but must engage his internal metronome to maintain the beat.
The contrast in style with other preludes, including no. 5 "Eau tranquille", is striking. Yet there are characteristics that recur. The right hand is characterized by a constant stream of parallel thirds that sound the water. In the left hand an arpeggio (rapid chord notes one after another) is heard, followed by a note of the chord repeated like a pulse. In another way Jongen creates rhythmic discrepancy here. Rather than providing an accent every so many beats, he shifts the accent continuously. As a listener you lose an anchor point in time. The capricious path of the water comes to life this way. Again, it is not so much virtuosity that is the challenge for the pianist but keeping up with these shifts so he himself doesn't get lost.
Perhaps the most virtuosic prelude from this collection is no. 11 "Papillons noirs". This prelude opens with an attention-grabbing chord, after which the playing begins. The right hand moves back and forth across the keys from left to right, while the left hand supports the stream of notes with chords.
With the second collection on this album, Ilić also brings Jongen's later style to the fore. With 24 preludes in all keys, Jongen joins a musical tradition that found inspiration in Das wohltemperierte Klavier by J.S. Bach. In the Romantic era, it had become customary to work progressively through each key signature (e.g.: C major followed by A minor). Among others, Chopin and Shostakovich organized their collections in this way. Jongen, however, harks back to Bach's arrangement and places the relative keys together (e.g.: C major followed by C minor).
In other ways too, Jongen draws on the music of his predecessors, and in particular the Baroque. Forms such as the canon (no. 5), the fughetta (no. 8) and the sarabande (no. 14) make their entrance. Lesser-known genres such as the late seventeenth-century Provençal folk dance rigaudon (no. 13) are also included by Jongen in this collection. With attention to phrasing, intonation and accentuation, Ilić brings these preludes to life with taste.
WHO: Naruhiko Kawaguchi [piano], members of Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century (track 01: Sophie Wedell & Franc Polman [violin], Yoshiko Morita [viola], Albert Brüggen [cello], Maggie Urquhart [double bass])
WHAT: Au clair de la lune - Flemish Romantic Piano Music
LABEL: Et'cetera KTC1718
ORDER: JPC
WHO: Ivan Ilić [piano]
WHAT: Jongen: Préludes
LABEL: Chandos CHAN20264
ORDER: JPC
