MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


Buy through MusicWeb for £12 postage paid.

 

Musicweb Purchase button

 

Flemish Rhapsodies
Michel BRUSSELMANNS (1886 – 1960)
Flemish Rhapsody (1931) [12:30]
Maurice SCHOEMAKER (1890 – 1964)
Flemish Rhapsody (1931) [9:45]
Marinus de JONG (1891 – 1984)
Flemish Rhapsody (1935) [9:49]
Jean ABSIL (1893 – 1974)
Flemish Rhapsody, op.4 (1928) [13:32]
Albert ROUSSEL (1869 – 1937)
Flemish Rhapsody, op.56 (1936) [9:40]
August de BOECK (1865 – 1937)
Dahomeyan Rhapsody (1893) [4:38]
BRTN Philharmonic Orchestra (Brussels)/Alexander Rahbari
rec. 1992, Concert Hall of the Belgium Radio and Television (Flemish broadcasts), Brussels. DDD
TALENT DOM 291187 [60:02]

Experience Classicsonline

 

 

To be honest, if I had read about this disk I might think it to be some kind of April fool. After all, a disk called Flemish Rhapsody containing five works with the same title might seem to be rather over–egging the pudding. But this is no jest, for here are six very enjoyable, and colourful, works from composers whose names, with, possibly, two exceptions, will be new to you.

Brusselmanns was born in Paris, but studied with Paul Gilson - probably the first Flemish composer to compose a rhapsody for orchestra – Scottish Rhapsody (1886) - at the Brussels Conservatoire. He remained an isolated figure all his life. This Flemish Rhapsody is not based on any folk material, but that hardly matters for it’s a cogently conceived work, full of brilliant orchestration. There’s a particularly melting section for cor anglais about half–way through – and good (original) tunes. Why have we never heard this piece before? It’s got real charm and quite a bit of cheekiness about it, and some of the orchestration sounds a little like Constant Lambert! This is super stuff – a joy from beginning to end.

Schoemaker also studied with Gilson, as well as having lessons in counterpoint from Brusselmanns. He uses two folk tunes – a boisterous theme for the beginning and end and a slower, dreamier, idea for the relaxed, and contrasting, middle section. Perhaps not as colourful in its orchestration as the previous piece it is just as enjoyable.

Marinus de Jong was Dutch by birth but after studying in Antwerp he took Belgian citizenship and started his musical career as a virtuoso pianist. This work uses a number of folksongs and is in a freer, more rhapsodic, form than the earlier works. It’s restrained and discreet, nothing really festive about this music – it seems worthy rather than worthwhile.

Jean Absil was a Walloon and his wife came from Ghent, which is probably the reason for this work. Using four folksongs – one with the wonderful title The sneaky fisherman – this is a very fresh and delightful piece of light music. It sports luminous orchestration, well worked out ideas and is reminiscent of the lovely way that Grace Williams uses the Welsh Nursery Songs in her Fantasia on that material.

Albert Roussel was born in Tourcoing, which is just on the French side of the border with Belgium, so it’s not too unusual to expect him to have written this work. Using five 16th and 17th century Flemish tunes, Roussel creates a piece like the Absil, unpretentious and enjoyable.

Finally, August de Boeck’s Dahomeyan Rhapsody, the earliest work here which, strangely, is very reminiscent of Delius Dance Rhapsodies, yet it predates both of them by quite some time! This piece is a lovely romp and nothing else.

This is a most enjoyable collection of unknown pieces in very fine performances and is well worth investigating because the music is so delightful. The recorded sound is bright and clear and the notes in the booklet, are in Flemish, French, German and English. In general these are very optimistic pieces whose only desire is to entertain. You can’t ask for more than that from a piece of music.

Bob Briggs
 


 

 

 

 

 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.