On Music
SIMON, JOHN
On Music Beauty from Belgium By John Simon A correlation exists between a country's size and importance and the number of major artists it produces. The former Yugoslavia and...
...Held against Jongen is that he was not an innovator...
...And Claude Rostand, in his Dictionnaire de la musique contemporaine, refers to Lekeu's "chromatic writing and heightened lyricism manifesting themselves with an almost expressionist generosity...
...The second movement, Assez lent, is highly introverted music that, starting in a whisper, achieves that characteristic Jongenian inwardness— music overheard rather than heard...
...Romaniahad one...
...48, 1915) begins with a gorgeous Poème élégiaque, as perfect as anything Jongen has written, and ends with a barely less beautiful Final...
...70) for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon...
...His younger brother, Marie-Victor-Justin-Léon (1884-1969) was also a composer of distinction...
...77, 1924), a major work that ought to be part of the standard repertoire...
...The disc contains also interesting works by Tournemire andLouisVierne...
...It then turns sensuously lyrical, becomes next a stately march, and ends in a delirious tarantella that, however, concludes soberly, though not without a merry final trill...
...The version on EMI is not recommended...
...Yet out of such influences the eclectic Jongen managed to forge a style all his own...
...The group included the prominent British violist Lionel Tertis and, as first violin, Désiré Defauw, future conductor of the Chicago Symphony...
...On Talent (DOM 1910 74) the Ensemble Harpeggio plays some of these pieces more broadly, which is not unappealing...
...Richard Strauss gave him important advice in Berlin, as did d'Indy in Paris...
...The Piano Concerto (Op...
...And what of his not being an innovator...
...The third movement, Recitativo e finale: très modéré, produces wonderful harmonies, with a grave cello mostly in the lower register, and the piano generally taking high flight, expressing hope against a background of deep concern...
...and Op...
...The guest appearance of the celebrated Joachim Quartet in Liège turned him to what he recognizes in his Memories of Childhood and Youth as the most difficult and demanding genre...
...129,1944) is exquisite, with, as Michel Stockhem says in the booklet, "a spellbindingly poetic atmosphere," enhanced by reducing the brass section to two homs and letting the harp sing out with discreet accompaniment...
...Sonata No...
...In any case, self-critical, he preserved only 137 of his 241 opus numbers...
...Allegro moderato, is sprightly, but with a slow section of muted melancholy cropping up in the middle...
...The 38-minute first sonata, inD major (Op...
...The former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria have not had a single major composer...
...The Cello Sonata (DOM 2910 35, in C minor...
...114/3, 1941) exhibits the sadness of a 70ish man caught up in yet another world war...
...A disquieting contest of sobriety and vehemence is resolved in a gently feelingful conclusion...
...79,1925/28) has rightly become a competition piece at the Paris Conservatory...
...Music for Flute (Naxos 557111) begins with Slow Dance for flute and harp (Op...
...Although the Flemish region has no composer of importance, the francophone Walloon region has produced three...
...Then there was a young genius, Guillaume Lekeu, whose family moved to France when he was nine...
...There follows Two Pieces in Trio Form for flute, cello and harp (Op...
...Anyway, given how many innovators have produced the unlistenable, why not an enthralling traditionalist...
...The quartet, like so much of Jongen, strikes me as a self-portrait of the artist...
...the advantage of the Motette is that it includes three interesting Jongen solo organ pieces, one of his specialties...
...27,1902), is dedicated to the great Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaye...
...The final movement, Animé, is a fine example of squeezingnonstop variety out of a single theme that weds melodiousness to energy and, after a splendid outburst of forcefulness, ends in satisfying quietude...
...The performances by Eric Melon and Jean Schills are expert...
...Melodiousness increases gradually along with intensity, and the mood is, again, hard to define...
...It earned the 20-year-old his first award, and while the structure is indebted to Franck and d'Indy, the voice is Jongen's own...
...in 1911 a full professor...
...near the conclusion, transmuted church bells are gently tolling...
...Well, Jean-Charles Hoffelé and Piotr Kaminski perceptively speak of the Symphonie concertante as "often in a crisis of tonal suspension, which gives it an undeniable modernity, considering its date of composition...
...Greece, three maybes...
...Its debut performance, at London's South Place, elicited the following recollection: "I have rarely seen an audience more attentive and more enthusiastic than the one that attended these Sunday concerts...
...Both brothers were, like César Franck, born in Liège, where Joseph studied at the conservatory...
...Until 1994, the best version of the Symphonie concertante was Edo de Waart's with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Murray at the organ (Telare 80096...
...The first movement, Allegro molto moderato, is the very music of living—a stoic endurance of restless tribulations...
...Both versions are superb with minimal differences...
...Even so, he left, to quote Michael Kennedy, "a small body of works of exceptional promise and beauty...
...Two Paraphrases of Walloon Carols, for four flutes, one of them alto, charmingly rounds off a valuable disc...
...Austria, Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia have done much better, having been part of the mighty and, above all, cultured Austro-Hungarian Empire...
...A fair amount of Jongen's music is available on CD, but mostly on labels not easy to come by...
...At the outbreak of World War I Joseph moved with his family to England, where he performed as pianist and organist, and founded the Belgian Quartet...
...Cyprès 3610 contains late orchestral music...
...Concluding, Toccata (Moto perpetuo...
...In 31 minutes its four movements encompass every emotion known to me, but avoid capricious contrast through an artful concatenation that never allows changes of key (from major to minor) or dynamics to become jolting...
...Remarkably handsome, with usually a mustache and short beard, he looks buttoned-up and elegant in his never smiling pictures...
...It may be that his rather uneventful life contributed to his relative obscurity...
...But was this necessary or, in his case, actually true...
...Included is the Passacaille etgigue (Op...
...triumphantly self-assertive, a heroically thrown-down gauntlet to life and death...
...The Ensemble Arpae players add a Sonata Duo in D for violin and cello that is merely pleasant, but also the early Adagio for violin and viola (Op...
...Both works are beautifully played by Thérèse-Marie Gilissen, with Brian Priestman conducting the French Belgian Radio TV Orchestra...
...Slow Dance and Two Pieces reappear on Musique de chambre pour flute, harpe et cordes (Cyprès 1832), which begins with the Concert à cinq (Of...
...the one on Koch Schwann 315012 is better, but that disc profits mostly from two marvelous works for viola and orchestra...
...On the René Gailly label, Belgian Sextets begins with Jongen's 1922 Rhapsodie (Op...
...The opening movement...
...22/1) that in 6.5 minutes says more than many a longer piece...
...90, 1929), the former blustery, the latter deliciously fizzy...
...this subtly penetrant music explores and eloquently reveals the deepest, most private stirrings of the soul...
...The Suite (Op...
...Next, Divertimento, molto vivo...
...He spent World War II partly in Belgium and partly in France, then eventually settled at his country estate at Sart-lez-Spa, where he kept composing up to his death at age 79...
...We come now to the magnum opus, the Symphonie concertante for organ and orchestra (Op...
...They add Introduction et danse for harp and viola and Valse for solo harp, minor works if you will, but, especially the latter, unforgettable...
...Agité, displays a most elegant agitation that often subsides into a seductive melancholy, which carries over into the second movement, Légèrement animé: at first a muted agitation that, however, avoids languor, then high animation, alternating with suggestion-filled restraint...
...80,1925), consisting of ameltingly lyrical first piece, Assez lent, with some astringency tempering the sweetness...
...This now gets strong competition from the Zurich Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Schweizer, with soloist Ulrich Meldau (Motette 40211...
...34, in E major, 1909) b egins Assez lent (note how often Jongen uses the circumspect assez, meaning fairly...
...Impeccably played by Marc Grauwels and Dalia Ouziel, the charming work grows with each recommended rehearing...
...It should be pointed out that from 1919 to 1926 Jongen conducted the Concerts spirituels in Brussels, with the Frenchadjectivemeaning witty as well as spiritual...
...In 1894 Joseph won two national prizes, and three years later the Belgian Prix de Rome...
...50, of 1916, written during his exile in England...
...The opening movement, Anime, described in the booklet as "apassionate journey through innumerable tonalities," has little spurts of emotion sneaking up on us...
...One who was open to the best of what innovators such as Debussy, Ravel and Strauss offered, and adapted it to his own largely conservative yet flexible needs...
...A superb work in three movements—Décidé-Calme-Très decide—it reaches emotional heights in the outer movements, but features in the middle a quiet beauty, ethereal and transcendent...
...Not only was he a great and good man, he al so taught France's composing elite: Henri Duparc, Vincent d'Indy, Ernest Chausson, Paul Dukas, Albéric Magnard, Joseph-Guy Ropartz, Charles Toumemire, and Gabriel Pierné were his pupils, and even Gabriel Fauré and Emmanuel Chabrier were, to quote David Dubai, "nurtured by him...
...Cyprès 1634 offers orchestral music...
...My own incomplete collection comprises 16 discs wholly or partly devoted to him, involving quite a bit of duplication...
...39,1912) is compellingly played by Viviane Spanoghe and André De Groote...
...More often thoughtful than emotional (possibly reflecting the sad state of Belgium in 1916), it nevertheless rises to a passionate climax in the last movement, Molto vivo...
...3, of 1894, one of his earliest attempts at absolute music...
...but the performances and sound are consistently fine...
...It is very naturally recorded with the Gong Quartet, named for its founder, Hanxiang Gong...
...There is something academic about the first movement, and perhaps about the work's circular form, but the three subsequent ones, in ABA form, are distinctive, and display a talent for being tuneful without sugariness...
...Having absorbed something of both their styles, he returned to Brussels to teach at a music academy...
...Let me suggest that you explore this for yourself, as played by Gary Stegall on Klavier 1103 2 or, better yet, by Diane Andersen on a two-disc set on Pavane 7475/6...
...You will discover a piano composer equal, if not to the greatest, at least to some of the very distinguished...
...127,1943) is merely a graceful ripple on the vast stream of concertante piano literature, albeit with a nice neoromantic flavor...
...These audiences included the common people, the petit-bourgeois, etc...
...In 1898 he became an adjunct professor at the Liège Conservatory...
...I am unable to touch here upon another enticing aspect of Jongen's music, the solo piano compositions...
...71, 1923...
...2 (Op...
...In a single 17-minute freeform movement, the piece begins mysteriously, only to metamorphose into a habanera, thence into a farandole (a lively old Provençal dance in 6/8 time...
...56 bis, 1918), bittersweet exile's music from wartime London...
...we are told, further, that Classic Talent is a trademark of DOMusic, Antwerp...
...The final item...
...The second piece...
...True, his family moved from Liège to Paris in 1835,and César remained there till his death...
...The disc's longest item is the Sonata for Flute and Piano (Op...
...The nomenclature of the violin-sonata disc (DOM 2910 57) is confusing...
...In this balance, Jongen approximates Faur...
...They offered new and provocative works from all over, the Rhapsodie rightfully included...
...The Allegro appassionato (Op...
...This may be partly due to its sharing the language and culture of France, especially since the boundary between the countries is politically and culturally porous...
...Quartet No...
...life-affirming music, sometimes cheerful, almost whimsical, sometimes delicately feelingful...
...The third and least internationally recognized Belgian composer, for whom I feel a special affinity, was Joseph Jongen (1873-1953...
...But the Harp Concerto (Op...
...Certainly it is astonishing how many reference works are mum about this composer who worked in all genres, leaving only opera to his younger brother...
...Expansively, it piles melody on melody, and at 13 varied minutes could stand alone...
...Returning to Belgium in 1919, he was appointed a professor at the Brussels Conservatory, and became its director from 1925 to 1939, when he was succeeded by his brother...
...I experienced there some of the most resounding successes of my career...
...influences...
...This required travel in France, Germany and Italy, and gained him a considerable reputation...
...Just one of his compositions, the Symphonie concertante for organ and orchestra, can be said to have made the world repertory, and can be found on four different CDs...
...He won first prize in every academic subject, as well as for organ and piano...
...The tone poem Impressions d Ardennes, the Cello Concerto, and the Fantaisie sutdeux noëlspopulaires wallons are relatively early works, thoroughly professional and eminently listenable, but hardly indispensable...
...81,1926/27...
...At the end, marked vif, waves of liveliness successively sweep away the melancholy...
...Third movement, Molto lento: lento, misterioso...
...The accompanying works by two modern Belgian composers are regrettably undistinguished...
...Despite his Flemish last name, Jongen was a francophone, as his given names attest: Marie-AlphonseNicolas-Joseph...
...His early works were in a lightened Franckian mode, which was gradually superseded by a postimpressionist one, derived chiefly from Fauré, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, with nods also to his good friends Pierné and Dukas...
...Called Talent on the front cover, it goes by Classic in back...
...The booklet pronounces Jongen "an artist who dedicated his work to Beauty with noble and refined sentiments," and the capital ? is well deserved...
...Elegy for Four Flutes (Op...
...This may have something to do with Belgianness, being geographically and psychologically between northern (Dutch, German) and southern (French, etc...
...Had he not died of typhus on January 21,1894, one day after his 24th birthday, I venture to say that "the brilliant young Belgian," as The New Oxford History of Music calls him, would have become one of the major composers of his time...
...Jongen blends organ and orchestra, a tricky match, with sovereign assurance...
...Norman Lebrecht unfairly refers to the Concert à cinq as "Debussy by another name...
...It is a stately, chaste mournfulness, deep-felt but lightly worn...
...The first of the trio was the venerable César Franck (1822-90...
...What may contribute to Jongen's distinction, besides the inexhaustible flow of melody and harmonic originality, is the equipoise between sweetness and sobriety, between enchanting melody and formal self-control, elegance curbing sentimentality...
...Pavane 7483 features two string quartets: Op...
...Forced to give a one-sentence definition of this music, I would call it the pensive product of a man of refined feelings...
...LET ME START, though, with Jongen's strong suit, chamber music...
...2 is a mature work in three movements in the classical formula fastslow-fast...
...In 1891, at age 18, he joined the faculty of the Liège Conservatory as a teacher of harmony and counterpoint...
...Mireille Flour is the soloist with the Orchestre de Liège under Fernand Quinet...
...There is some unfhrilling passage work, but before indifference can set in, a passionate melody comes to the rescue along with an interesting final key change, typical of Jongen...
...But what about little Belgium...
Vol. 87 • May 2004 • No. 3
