How does one compose in the turmoil? What does one write on the roads to exile? Why dance while so many are suffering? The 14-18 collection aims at drawing a musical picture of the Great War years, thanks to recordings of both the erudite and popular musical pieces that emerged at a time when all art seemed pointless but could bring comfort nonetheless, for a concert or an evening, to civilians and soldiers of Belgium and beyond. Month after month, as the conflict dragged on, performers and composers resumed their work. Whether by explicit texts or by their aesthetic choices integrating more “exotic” sources than German music, part of their production was bound to reflect the impact of the war. Yet by lending an attentive ear to the popular music of the war years performed on this album, we may be permitted to affirm that these repertoires were forerunners of the world to come, and can indeed be seen as an indicator of the true essence of musical creation.

What makes a piece of music difficult? This album introduces a pair of riveting, technically ambitious, historically important, and never-before-recorded polyphonic masses of the fifteenth century, performed by an ensemble that has developed a new approach designed to honor the music’s variety and unflagging intensity. Both works stand out for their notational complexity. They are also exceptional for the skill they demand of the performers: we find hair-raising rhythms, intricate counterpoint, and long melodic phrases. Rather than mitigate these challenges with a large ensemble and a generous acoustic, this recording enhances them: the performances are one-on-a-part, featuring energetic tempi, close miking, and minimal reverberation. This approach is unforgiving—but together with bright vowels and a flexible vocal technique, it has the benefit of allowing the music to come across with uncommon directness and clarity.

Édouard Lassen never stopped composing. His copious oeuvre contains examples of almost every genre in favour in the second half of the 19th century, from piano pieces to operas, choral works, symphonic and concertante pieces. His international reputation was secured especially by his theatrical works. He also produced a regular and uninterrupted flow of over 260 songs from 1857 until his death in 1904. The small-scale song form was ideally suited to his temperament imbued with universalism, assuming a dual cultural heritage. The immediate charm of Lassen’s art songs rests on a fusion between a perfect German prosody and a melodious amplitude inherited from the French tradition, the one bringing out the performer’s talents as dramatist and narrator, the other the beauty of their voice and their musicality. It is with mastery that Reinoud Van Mechelen, accompanied by pianist Anthony Romaniuk, rekindles the breath of his now unjustly forgotten melodies, mixing intimacy and depth of sensation.

Intimacy, intensity, passion—this album explores the unfamiliar idea that fifteenth-century songs might cause us to sigh, weep, or laugh out loud. In bringing to life a world in which crying in public was not just acceptable but required, we have to take seriously the crushing despair of a line like “My only sorrow is that I am not dead,” or the undisguised sarcasm of “This is how she chopped and cooked me up.” In Johannes Ockeghem’s roughly two dozen songs we find not only unparalleled compositional prowess, but feelings that range from happiness to loss, anger to despair, and bitterness to merriment. The album’s all-vocal, fully texted, close-mic’d performances are rooted in a flexible, full-blooded vocal technique that aims to capture the music’s technical brilliance and emotional depth.

“Vox humana” or “Vox celestis”? For César Franck (1822-1890) the one is often a metaphor for the other; whether in sacred or secular vein, spirituality is inherent in all his vocal music, even the most modest of his choral works. Certain of these form the focus of attention in this first recording. They remain unpublished; were they perhaps thought to be of lesser worth for having originated in a religious or private celebration or in response to a publisher’s commission? We should remember that it was often the specific circumstances that provided Franck with the stimulus necessary for the realization of some of his masterpieces. Be that as it may, listening to these choral works offers the listener some delightful discoveries.

Jean-Noël Hamal’s musical language is a perfect reflection of this transitional period in which the Baroque galant style merges into the classical style. One senses in Hamal’s music a communicative vitality, a charmingly poetic note, a keen sense of elegant melody and a theatricality in dynamic contrasts which in some ways evokes the Mannheim school. As soon as he was able, he exploited the ample space available by writing works for two choirs and two orchestras. He seems also to have had a very pronounced preference for major tonalities (he even went so far as to write an astonishingly cheerful Dies irae in C major) and for very readable harmonies, although these sometimes risk being too predictable or conventional. But he was also capable of being a visionary: by their tripartite structure and the autonomous form his symphonies make him a precursor of the classical symphony. He is equally capable of entirely unexpected surprises and attractive details, as is apparent in his motets delivered respecting the practices then in force in Liège by Nicolas Achten and Scherzi Musicali ensemble, mixing subtlety and theatricality.

Guillaume Du Fay (ca. 1397-1474) composed these settings toward the end of his life, and can be regarded as the summation of his outstanding career. Each of these masses are somewhat experimental for their time, and all are outstandingly beautiful. These masterworks are presented on two discs, and are performed by Cut Circle, conducted by Jesse Rodin.

Our “Historiques” collection is devoted to reissuing historic recordings linked to particular performers. This time the focus is on the mezzo-soprano Livine Mertens (Antwerp 1898 - Brussels 1968). 1923 saw her first appearance on the stage on which her whole career was to take place (until 1945): La Monnaie opera house. Her first appearance as Carmen on 1 August 1929 marked a red-letter day: her vocal and physical presence made her the uncontested mistress of this role, as crucial for her career as for her life; a Carmen of real stature, of an irresistible realism, a dramatic intensity such as we rarely encounter. The quality of her voice is here magnificently restored in a typical operatic repertoire from the early 20th century- Bizet, Gounod, Massenet, Ravel, Thomas and others, in recordings dating from 1930-32. 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 almost a century ago. The booklet in four languages is lavishly presented and generously illustrated with rare documents.

The Belgian composer A.E.M. Grétry or André Ernest Modeste Grétry, is perhaps better known as simply André Grétry. This is his musical depiction of the William Tell story.