Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

A modern and stylistically flexible symphony orchestra, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic demonstrates an artistic flair, which allows for a variety of styles- from classical to contemporary- in a historically authentic manner. Chief Conductor Edo de Waart is responsible for the orchestra’s main repertoire. Drawing on his vast orchestral experience, he contributes to the unique character of the ensemble, working closely with Principal Conductor Philippe Herreweghe. Wim Henderickx, artist in residence of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, is one of Belgium’s most prolific contemporary composers. He is known for a style that casts its net far beyond Western music. According to Gramophone Magazine, this process of creative osmosis does not lead to an eclectic or postmodern style, but rather to a clearly identifiable and internally consistent musical organism, ‘as if he stood back and viewed the world from a great distance, studied its many cultural forms and practices in detail, immersed himself fully in its musical styles and traditions, then carried on much as before.’ Following the successful release of his powerful and impressive orchestral work Tejas, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic is proud to present this new release with more orchestral music by Henderickx. The subtitle of his Symphony No. 1, At the Edge of the World (2011) is inspired by a sculpture by Anish Kapoor, and is in itself a five-movement reflection on space and sound. This new recording goes along with the percussion concerto Groove! (2012) and the two alternative versions of Empty Mind I (2013-2014).

Classical Music

HENDRICKX Tejas. Skriet. Le visioni di paura. Variations • Martyn Brabbins, cond; Royal Flemish P • CUTTING EDGE RFP 003 (67: 32)


I wasted a Tom Stoppard line (“when Belgium produces a composer”) in a recent review; it really belongs here. Wim Hendrickx (b.1962) studied composition (with Willem Kersters) and percussion at the Antwerp Conservatory; he teaches there and in Amsterdam. His music is best described as abstract expressionist, and the link to the visual arts is appropriate: Tejas , a 37-minute orchestral work written in 2009, is subtitled “What Does the Sound of the Universe Look Like?” This is hard-driving, powerful music, crammed with events and yet a most convincing whole. The music ranges from comfortable to wildly dissonant; there is no suggestion of atonality, nor are there easily identifiable key relationships. The composer’s study of percussion may be recognized by his employment of a large variety of drums, which become almost a concertante element. It opens with the Big Bang—one crashing fortissimo chord followed by strings and woodwinds skittering towards silence, a welcome change from Peter Ruzicka’s opening 30 seconds of super pianissimo , about which I complained in Fanfare 35:5. Hendrickx’s chord suggests the “Eroica,” and Tejas continues to make subtle connections to the past, especially to Le Sacre du printemps (which—on its 99th birthday—we must salute as the most influential single work ever created, possibly in all the arts). But at one point drums quietly tap out the da-da-da-dum of Beethoven’s Fifth. None of this is blatant, nor is a general orchestral feeling of Mahler: the giant climaxes, 99 players sitting mute as one or two noodle along, contrasts of darkness and blazing light. I have tried to describe what I hear; after reading the composer’s notes, I learn that Tejas is a Sanskrit word and that the music has connections to Tantric philosophy. I have often found composers’ notes to be at odds with my own perceptions (and preferred to go my own way), but they should mean more to you than my ravings, so you deserve to be told. Tejas is presented on a single track with 11 index numbers; no doubt they indicate sections of the work, but as yet I have not been able to parse them; to me, this is one vast, unbroken stretch of music.


The three other Hendrickx works on this disc are short pieces, from five to 13 minutes long, composed between 1988 and 2003 (the cover says “ Tejas and other orchestral works”). Heard following Tejas , they strike one as preparatory work for the pièce de resistance , but of course they weren’t written as such. They are all recognizable as the same composer (a point he makes in his notes, too); after one thoroughly digests Tejas , they may reveal their individual characters. The performances and the recorded sound (in Queen Elisabeth Hall, Antwerp, on June 23–25, 2010) do justice to the local composer; the booklet is mum on whether or not he attended or supervised.


What matters is that I find Tejas exciting and absorbing, ever more so over multiple hearings. I can’t remember being so taken by a new piece since Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar (which I continue to regard as the awakening of a new century of music). Don’t miss this one!


FANFARE: James H. North

A Dutch-language oratorio from one of the pioneers of the Flemish music scene! Peter Benoit was a rarity in the predominantly French-speaking cultural landscape of Belgium, and a Dutch-language oratorio about the Scheldt River was of huge symbolic value. Depicting the river as a lifeline reflected the radical optimism of Benoit's cultural policy. He had chosen the subject well: few other European rivers had so often been the subject of cross-border conflicts, treaties, lawsuits, sieges, blockades, and battles as the Scheldt. For the libretto, Benoit collaborated with writer Emanuel Hiel, who had previously provided the libretto for Lucifer. Together they created a complex scenario, moving away from the narrative oratorio tradition, in which the river is used to depict a journey through national consciousness.