The “Historiques” collection is devoted to reissuing historic recordings linked to particular performers. This time the focus is on the singer Pierre d’Assy (Liège 1868 - Lyon 1910). Although he died young, this bass achieved a remarkable international career. The quality of his voice is here magnificently restored in a typical operatic repertoire from the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries – Verdi, Gounod, Massenet - plus Mozart, Meyerbeer, Rossini, Berlioz and others, in recordings dating from 1908 and 1909. Meticulous remastering work and the restoration of the correct pitches (the speed of 78 rpm was far from consistent) make it hard to believe that all this dates from more than a century ago. The booklet in four languages is lavishly presented and generously illustrated with rare documents.

The 14-18 collection draws a musical picture of the Great War years, thanks to recordings of both erudite and popular musical pieces that emerged at the time. + The chamber music of Georges Antoine, most of whose works were composed during the war years, is the first volume of this collection. + The soldier musician (as d'Indy called him) enlisted in August 1914, was discharged in May 2015 due to deteriorating health, settled in Bretagne where he composed music and arranged concerts, voluntarily went back to the front in 1918 although still sick, before dying at Bruges four days after Armistice.

In that apogee of polyphonic vocal music, the 16th century, Roland de Lassus (Mons c. 1532-Munich 1594) is pre-eminent. So famous was he that by the time he was 34, Samuel Quickelberg had already written the biography of “the more than divine Orlando”, as the poet Ronsard called Lassus, and as early as 1560 had praised the fact that he regarded music and words as of equal importance. But beyond his mastery of polyphonic language, what clearly characterises Lassus is his ability to feel at home in all styles whether secular or sacred, serious or light-hearted. His impressive oeuvre, confined to the vocal domain, reveals a conception of music, which had long been cloistered and hierarchical. But the lute is an exceptional instrument with numerous special advantages: it is convenient to handle, easily transported, and able to play alone to accompany music in several parts at once; it can accompany singing or fit easily into ensembles. Thanks to its polyphonic capabilities, the lute can combine separately printed voice parts into vocal editions. Being the instrument of musical synthesis, the lute points the way to the development of instrumental music. In the Renaissance, lute music is divided into three groups: dance music, polyphonic vocal works in tablature form, and freer forms of music (fantasias or ricercars) often based on the same contrapuntal rules as vocal music. The recital in this CD illustrates all these different genres.

Joseph Jongen is universally considered one of the major Belgian composers of the 20th century. The 150th anniversary of his birth, celebrated in 2023, is the occasion for the rediscovery of an oeuvre that remains, for the most part, oddly underrated. Following on Entrevisions (Musique en Wallonie, MEW 1993, 2019), this CD of Fêtes rouges now concludes the first complete recording of his mélodies (art songs) for voice and piano. The mélodie genre occupies a special place within the chamber music repertoire. Numerous composers contemporary with Jongen, both male and female, tried their hand at it, but few succeeded in raising it to emblematic status to stand comparison with Fauré, Debussy or indeed Ravel. In his letters and notebooks Jongen mentions his vocal works only briefly. But listening to the complete corpus of these works, and the stylistic evolution that becomes evident, reveals the enjoyment and obvious care which Jongen brought to each of these miniatures. Carrying on from Entrevisions, the double album of Fêtes rouges offers a musical overview of the composer’s various “periods”: French romanticism, post-Wagnerism and Debussy-ism, and a Jongenian synthesis. Each CD focuses on one of his three great song cycles: opus 25 (Entrevisions, MEW 1993, 2019), here we have opus 29 and opus 57.

The “Historiques” collection of Musique en Wallonie honors the Verviers violinist Alfred Dubois. As a soloist Dubois performed under prestigious conductors such as Michaël Bowles; Charles Münch; Rhené-Baton; Nino Sanzogno; Hermann Scherchen and Felix Weingartner. It is worth emphasizing how energetically he spoke up in favour of Brahms; not only the violin concerto and the double concerto; but also the chamber music. Mention should also be made of his devotion to contemporary music (Pierné; Ravel; Milhaud; Lattuada; Respighi; Szymanowsky; etc.) and Belgian music in particular (Buffin; Quinet; Vreuls; Poot; and Léon and Joseph Jongen; who dedicated to him his Sonata for violin et cello); a devotion to which the present collection of his entire recordings of Belgian music can do only partial justice. Dubois’s playing follows the interpretative tradition of his time by employing violinistic features which he nevertheless integrates into his always scrupulous and elegant style. Was it perhaps precisely this restrained approach - sometimes criticised by the reviewers of the day - that paradoxically ensured that his recordings enjoyed greater success than those of many of his contemporaries? In fact the constraints imposed by the recording techniques of the time may in the case of certain players have put a brake on their spontaneity in performing live. To today’s listener; Dubois’s style is by no means cold or inexpressive. His coherent manner of introducing the flexibility of the 19th century into the context of a sensitive and intuitive reading of the music may even constitute a valuable source of inspiration for violinists at the start of the 21st century.

This recording offers a new perspective for listening to the twelve pieces for organ by César Franck. The approach taken by the three performers Joris Verdin, Cindy Castillo and Bart Verheyen was to conform as closely as possible to the time and the circumstances in which the pieces played here were composed. They have limited themselves to assimilating and then to applying as far as possible the source material of that period, which at the same time presupposes turning a deaf ear to everything that has been said and written since Franck’s death. Compiling the present program offered the opportunity to produce two discs with a carefully considered choice of both program and instrument, a choice which does not necessarily correspond to the usual sequencing of Franck’s oeuvre. Here we present two symphonic organs with very different colors and in very different acoustics, played by different personalities who have one important thing in common: their fascination with Franck.

In the 17th century the city of Liège, capital of an enormous diocese and of a principality within the Empire, was described as a “priests’ paradise” on account of its imposing cathedral, its seven collegiate churches, about thirty parish churches, and its numerous abbeys and monasteries. This recording does more than justice to two manuscript which provides rare evidence of the polyphonic repertoire in use by the Liège religious orders in the first half of the 17th century: Grand livre de chœur de Saint-Lambert and Livre d’orgue des frères croisiers. The fifty-odd 4- to 8-part motets assembled in the Grand livre de chœur are by the hand of Liège composers from the first half of the 17th century who, with the exception of Gilles Hayne, were all active at the cathedral. These motets illustrate the permanence of the rite in honor of the patron saint of the diocese, Bishop Lambert, and other acts of devotions in favor in Liège at the time. Following the traditional format of the evening office, the vespers presented here alternate psalms and antiphons and end with a Magnificat with a particularly rich tonal texture. Sayve’s Magnificat for double chorus, preserved in the national library at Ljubljana, here receives its first recording. Drawing on extant sources of composers who all maintained a link with Liège, the Polyharmonique and Concerto Imperiale ensembles, under the direction of Alexander Schneider et Fabien Moulaert, here offers a program remarkable for its great stylistic and musical coherence.

First performed at the Brussels court during Lent 1706, this second oratorio by Pietro Torri is the oldest to have been given in the capital of the former Spanish Netherlands, and for which a score survives. Sung by the leading artists of the time – the very same who went on to participate in the first performances of the early Handel operas – it played a decisive role in the dissemination of Roman oratorio in northern Europe. Torri, who had a lifelong attachment to the court of the Electors of Bavaria, left behind the most substantial corpus of oratorios – both in French and in Italian – before Handel, whom La Vanità del mondo anticipates by the beauty of its arias and its dramatic power. This recording was performed at Festival International de Musiques Sacrées in Fribourg (Switzerland, 1988) by the prestigious ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln, conducted by Reinhard Goebel, and brilliant soloists.

This is the last volume 'Lasso: a musical biography' series. | Roland de Lassus is reveared as the greatest composer of the second half of the sixteeth century, being the cheif representative of the maure polyphonic syle of the Franco-Flemish school. | During his lifetime, Lassus wrote over 2,000 works in the known vocal genres of Lain, French, Italian, and German. | This volume inteds to report on the celebrity of his works; from his beginnings to posthumous publications and ending with one of the only two twelve-part compositions written by him. | Performing on this volume is Vox Luminis, lead by Lionel Meunier. | Vox Luminis has recently won the Gramophone Recording of the Year and the Baroque Vocal Award. |

Of a decade of Lassus' activity at the court of Bavaria (1569-1579) marked by a deterioration of relations with his patron Prince Albert V, this recording captures the variety of genres covered by the composer, from the liturgical area (mass, Magnificat) to the free inspiration of the composer: religious and secular motets, Latin and French songs, madrigals, secular and spiritual Lieder, not to mention his only contribution to the purely instrumental field with two-part works that make the link between the different parts.

Shortly after the second world war, the archivists at the cathedral of Tournai noted with regret the disappearance of a musical manuscript made up of plainchant and polyphony, written between the 15th century and 1602. It unexpectedly resurfaced in November 2006 and was re-entered in the cathedral's archives and library. An inscription on the back flyleaf gives the work the title Libellus confraternitatis Transfigurationis Domini in ecclesia Tornacensi (Little book of the friars of the Brotherhood of the Lord's Transfiguration at the Cathedral of Tournai). Various studies have revealed the exceptional interest of this manuscript in both it's historical and musical aspects. The recording by the Ensemble Psallentes, directed by Hendrik Vanden Abeele, enables listeners to discover all the beauties of this jewel.

Joseph-Hector Fiocco's music is remarkable for its quality, richness of invention and the liveliness that characterizes it all. With a somewhat surprising coherence it achieves a fusion of French and Italian aesthetics, as regards both harmony and melody. His infectious melodies give the listener the impression of knowing them already; singability is always paramount, and the lines are supple and elegant. Now and then a passage is reminiscent of Vivaldi, Pergolesi or Couperin. Yet the firm, inspired pen of Fiocco confirms his stature as a composer of the first order, with a highly personal language full of sensuality and light. Nicolas Achten and Scherzi Musicali deliver a second volume devoted to Fiocco's motets, after a 2011 release which was awarded a Diapason d'or Decouverte and IRR Outstanding.

In exile in London during World War I, Joseph Jongen (Li�ge, 1873 - Sart-lez-Spa, 1953) composed there numerous works. This CD brings together some of his pieces for orchestra, whose masters are called Franck, Wagner, Debussy and Ravel. His symphonic works from the Great War period compel recognition as the last vestiges of a world on which the language of late romanticism had still left a reassuring mark.

Anyone who has witnessed the welcome accorded to a national football team returning home after winning an international trophy might find it hard to believe that, not all that long ago, composers too were the object of similar popular adulation. The contest that gave rise to the most extreme transports of delight and pride was the Prix de Rome. Instituted by the Belgian government in 1841 on the model of the French prize of the same name, it was awarded every two years to young composers of under thirty. After being awarded the Prix de Rome in 1897, Joseph Jongen (1873-1953) began to compose vast works for cello and orchestra. These testify to a culture both Germanic and French which allows him to make the link between the works of Richard Strauss- whom he met in Munich- and Ernest Chausson. These three pieces are performed by the brilliant French cellist Henri Demarquette, accompanied by the Liege Royal Philharmonic- whose reputation is well known- conducted by the Austrian chef Christian Arming.

This recording, made in December 2020, is a unique witness to the organ of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Inaugurated in 1930, this instrument designed by the maker Joseph Stevens after a drawing by Victor Horta, will have resonated for about thirty years before falling into a deep silence lasting about fifty years. Initiated in 1988, the restoration of the instrument represented a long and complex process. Finally, it was in 2017 that this monumental instrument was inaugurated. Today, the threat of silence hangs over the organ again, a collateral victim of the water spilled on the roof fire of the Palais des Beaux-Arts on January 18, 2021. While the recording of this album was intended to provide a breath of fresh air in a period of musical activity deprived of the invigorating presence of the public, the program for the inauguration of the Stevens organ in 1930 now resonates even more intensely. Under the fingers of Cindy Castillo, Joseph Jongen's Sonata eroïca has a symbolic value, inviting us to hope and to enjoy a timeless hymn of victory.