Although he was steeped in music from early on,
playing the accordion in dance bands and piano in a jazz quartet
for which he wrote his first attempts at composition, Jean-Marie
Rens was a relatively ‘late starter’ as far as ‘serious’
composition is concerned. He entered the Brussels Conservatory
after renouncing a promising career as a professional football
player. There he studied with Jean-Claude Bartsoen and with Marcel
Quinet, the latter being also a most distinguished composer whose
work is presently shamefully neglected. Thus, Rens’ wide-ranging
musical background (he is also a fan of Genesis) enables him to
approach composition in complete freedom. As such, he might be
compared to, say, Erkki-Sven Tüür and Mark-Anthony Turnage
whose music clearly displays a similar unprejudiced, non-dogmatic
approach, bearing the influence of jazz and rock, while clearly
avoiding eclecticism. The five works recorded here, all fairly
recent, provide for a fair assessment of his present compositional
achievement.
Espace-Temps for orchestra was commissioned
by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège and is dedicated
to Pierre Bartholomée who conducted the first performance,
heard here. It is a beautiful orchestral piece built around an
important, though by no means concertante, piano part. It is a
magnificent study in orchestral textures and has great strength
as well as refinement.
Trois petits poèmes lettristes,
composed for the Choeur Mondial des Jeunes and dedicated to its
conductor Denis Menier, is something of a tour de force and a
real challenge. It was written to be first performed by young
singers from eight different countries and, what’s more,
after a rather limited rehearsal time. The words were written
by the Belgian jazz musician Arnould Massart who chose to write
in an invented language meant to meet Rens’ objectives in
terms of sound and rhythm. The first song actually sets vowel
sounds, mostly, so that it is also an essay in sound textures;
one is often reminded of Ligeti here, e.g. his Lux Aeterna. The
second song, mostly slow and lyrical, and the lively, rhythmically
alert final song ending with a sonorous boom, are sometimes redolent
of some East-European folk songs (e.g. Tormis). This lovely work
is a real gem if ever there was one.
The Trois pièces for piano also
partake of Rens’ major preoccupations: the first piece Vibrations
2 and the second one Résonances (the latter drawing on
the piano part from the orchestral work Espace-Temps)
may roughly be compared with Vibrations for flutes and
percussion. The final piece, Obsessions is a virtuoso Toccata
of considerable rhythmic complexity.
In Sept chansons traditionnelles flamandes,
françaises et wallonnes (to give the piece its full
title), Rens enshrines the vocal part in a subtle and refined
instrumental fabric (flute, cello and piano). These folk-song
settings are roughly in the same line as André Souris’s
rural cantata Le marchand d’images (1954/65, available
on Cyprès CYP 7607) and Berio’s own lovely Folk Songs,
although Rens’ settings are rather simpler and more straightforward
than Berio’s. The instrumental parts are superbly written
so as never to obscure the vocal part, superbly sung here by Els
Crommen. They marvellously echo the various moods suggested by
the words, by turns tender, sad (e.g. in the poignant fifth song
Les cloches and in the final sad song Het daget in den
Oosten literally re-composed by Rens) and ironic (as in the
sixth song La bergère et le Monsieur in which
the old gentleman speaks French whereas the shepherdess answers
in Walloon!). This is one of the loveliest pieces that I have
heard recently.
Rens’ beautifully made and strongly communicative
music is superbly well served by all concerned. This attractive
composer’s portrait is unreservedly recommended, and especially
to all those who still have to be persuaded that present-day music
may also be engaging and attractive. I urge you to give this magnificent
release a try. You will not be disappointed.
Hubert Culot
Musiques Nouvelles (a)
Choeur Mondial des Jeunes (b) Georges Deppe (piano)
(c) Nahandove (d) Laurette
Prète (piano) (e) Orchestre Philharmonique
de Liège et de la Communauté Françaisee; Denis Meniera
