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MADE IN BELGIUM

NEW BELGIAN CHORAL MUSIC

Etcetera Records, 2017

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TRACK LISTING

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  1. Rudi Tas (1957- ): Ave Maria (1996)

  2. Xavier Deprez (1966- ): O ignis Spiritus (2017) *

  3. Stephan Laschet (1979): Pater noster (2013) *

  4. Luc Dupuis (1954- ): Stabat Mater (1985) *

  5. Alan Charlton (1970-2018): The Everlasting Voices (2015) *

  6. Maarten Van Ingelgem (1976- ): Hampstead Heath (2014) *

  7. Roland Coryn (1938- ): The Sick Rose! (2006)

  8. Kurt Bikkembergs (1963- ): Never pain to tell thy Love (2004)

  9. Piet Swerts (1960- ): War (2014) *

  10. Jan Moeyaert (1981- ): In duin (2017) *

  11. arr. Jean-Marie Rens (1955- ): Die Nachtegaal int wild (2001) *

  12. arr. Toby Wardman (1981- ): Li p’tit banc (2017) *

  13. Rudi Tas (1957- ): Je voudrais te la dire (1998)

  14. Guy-Philippe Luypaerts (1931-1999): Chanson des éclopés (1996) *

  15. Alan Charlton (1970- ): Il flotte une musique éteinte (2016) * °

* world première recording

 

Brussels Chamber Choir
Helen Cassano, conductor
Thomas Plessers, vibraphone°
Dimos De Beun, recorder°

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Recording producer & editor: Rachel Smith

Recording engineer: Peter Newble

Executive producer for Etcetera Records: Dirk De Greef

Recording venue:

Keyhof, Chapel of the old monastery, Huldenberg

Recording dates: 18-19 March and 24-25 June 2017

Design & art-direction: Roman E. Jans
Cover image: Golconda, 1953, René Magritte

To mark its 10th anniversary in 2017, the Brussels Chamber Choir recorded its first professional album: “MADE IN BELGIUM: New Belgian Choral Music”. The album presents a selection of beautiful choral works written throughout Belgium between 1985 and 2017, and introduces several works in world première. The choir and conductor Helen Cassano hope to spark your curiosity with a varied range of sacred and secular works by composers from Flanders, Wallonie and Brussels. Far from showing a unified, national style in choral writing, the works on this CD all share a strong international flavour, and the composers share some of the same influences and sources of inspiration: Flemish composers Maarten Van Ingelgem and Piet Swerts both present works inspired by the First World War; Brussels organists Xavier Deprez and Luc Dupuis, as well as Flemish organist Rudi Tas and Stephan Laschet, native to the German-speaking region of Belgium, write religious works inspired by medieval chanting and organ music; Kurt Bikkembergs and Roland Coryn propose two heart-breaking settings of William Blake poems; Walloon composer Guy-Philippe Luypaerts sets a comic French poem; Brussels composer Jean-Marie Rens harmonises a Dutch-French bilingual 16th-century love song. Three composers who sing or have sung in the BCC have composed works especially for this album: British composer Toby Wardman presents an arrangement of a well-loved Walloon folk-song, Jan Moeyaert sets a Dutch Sympolist poem and Alan Charlton sets a Belgian Symbolist poem for choir, vibraphone and recorder.

REVIEWS

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 “This recording features some fifteen works, most of them world premieres, all Made in Belgium. The listener is plunged into an ocean of skilfully crafted modal harmonies, though it is a very calm ocean – with their ‘straight’ singing, the young singers of the Brussels Chamber Choir tend to smooth out any ripples. One notes the sidelong glances at Messiaen cast by Xavier Deprez and Luc Dupuis, but also Alan Charlton’s gracefully rounded phrases, both a cappella and to the echoes of the vibraphone.” ****

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Diapason Magazine, France, November 2018

Read the original review in French here

Read the Dutch translation here

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“I welcome the recently released “Made in Belgium” CD by Helen Cassano and the Brussels Chamber Choir, a portrait of contemporary polyphony in our country’s three regions, bridging the traditional divides which all too often blinker our vision as artists, musicians, citizens and, ultimately, as human beings. By one of those quirks of Belgian humour, we have an expat to thank for this: Helen Cassano was born in London and lived in Madrid before coming to Belgium. From the very first track, the listener is struck by the BCC’s vocal quality and consummate musicality, both in the colour and blend of its voice parts and in their overall balance. The rounded phrasing and refined dynamics suggest a demanding level of choral preparation. (...) This new recording offers a vivid snapshot of the polyphonic scene in modern-day Belgium, both through its choice of pieces and the manner in which they are performed, and I very much hope it will pave the way for other similar ventures.”

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Stemband Magazine, the magazine of Koor&Stem, the Flemish Choral Federation

Written by conductor Bruno Crabbé, December 2017

Read the full review in English here

Read the original review in French here

Read the published review in Dutch here

This recording was made possible by generous financial contributions from over 150 crowd-funders from all over the world, to whom the Brussels Chamber Choir is extremely grateful. A special mention goes to our main sponsors Alan Charlton & Nicola Robinson, Elien Cardon, Paul Gosme, Thierry Stulemeijer, Fam. Marien-Segers, Fam. Fobelets-Blaude, Pawel Nalewajko, Timothy Sullivan & Karen Ericksen, János Herman & Zsuzsanna Hermanné Mata, and J.H., as well as to other major benefactors who requested to remain anonymous.

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