Four new releases from the Musique en Wallonie label

Not as large a turnout as in other years for this press preview of four new releases from Musique en Wallonie. Naturally mostly French-speaking colleagues and experts. A pity, because such an organization with a mission to preserve and promote Walloon musical heritage hardly exists in Flanders. What's new in their catalogue?

For the first time - and with great pride - they have released a CD with work by Josquin des Prés. When asked why, the answer was very brief: because Josquin is a Walloon. There is much to tell about Josquin, and not only that he comes from Hainaut. This was also done by American musicologist and singer Jesse Rodin. He delved into and around the composer's oeuvre to definitively determine what is by him, what is not by him, or perhaps what might be. On this compilation CD, he performs with his ensemble Cut Circle only motets and chansons of which Rodin is one hundred percent convinced that Josquin wrote them. And he wants to end the discussion about how many compositions the 'Josquin corpus' actually comprises. With his Josquin Research Project, in which he analyzed that work musicologically, digitally and with the help of philologists as well, he arrived at 106. Far fewer than the previously generally accepted number of 346 works "attributed" to him. But perhaps more important is what you hear on this CD, how he performs Josquin with his ensemble. With special attention to the sensitivities of the texts, the correct tempi, without any interpretation whatsoever, only exactly as notated. With his performance, Jesse Rodin claims to give a new sound to the oeuvre of Josquin des Prés. The proof? Listen to that sonority!

Musique en Wallonie also pays attention to another "Belgian" from the Renaissance, Roland de Lassus, master of vocal polyphony. But this time it concerns – very originally – transcriptions of that work for lute. The most popular instrument of the 16th century, affordable and handy. And especially, the lute could globalize those vocal voices into one polyphonic sound. Moreover, you could add ornamentations to the melodic line. Historically speaking, you can also see the lute as a trendsetter for the development towards instrumental music. In those days, the composers, "the learned creators," were the celebrities; now it seems that the performers, "the minstrels" of that time, are the stars. Here the Argentine lutenist Evangelica Mascardi is the star soloist, and you can hear her virtuosic playing on both alto and soprano lute, and there are also transcriptions for tenor and bass lute. The CD also includes compositions by other contemporaries and lute music propagandists, including Vincenzo Galilei and Giovanni Terzi. Discover the full glory of this exceptional instrument "with so many assets and possibilities."

Musique en Wallonie has already released several CDs of works by Liège composer Joseph Jongen. Now it is a double CD with the conclusion of their complete integral of his songs. And performed by none other than soprano Sarah Defrise, recently honored as "Young Musician of 2021." "Fêtes Rouges" is the title and a reference to the bloody war from which Jongen had fled to England and his young friend and poet Franz Hellens to Nice. He sent Jongen a series of anti-militaristic poems. Hoping for peace, the pacifist Jongen set them to music, his long opus 57. For the songs of his opus 29, Jongen sought texts from, among others, Victor Hugo, Emile Verhaeren, and Baudelaire. Throughout this release you can follow his musical development, from his earliest song when he was seventeen, from French Romanticism through post-Wagnerian and Debussy to his own synthesis, say the authors. This exceptional CD was even created based on manuscripts. And about the interpretation we can only praise the beautiful voice of Defrise.

And then the organization, in their "Historical Recordings" series, wanted to rescue someone from oblivion. It is a rather modest violinist, Alfred Dubois, who was teacher and mentor to the much better-known Arthur Grumiaux. He gave him lessons free of charge because he knew what it was like to come from a humble family. Dubois himself once played for a living in cinema halls, but later in life he toured the world and was famous in those interwar years for his soft and careful glissandos.

Publishing such a series of meticulously produced (the booklets!) yet specialized CDs can hardly be profitable, but as a means of preserving musical heritage that certainly counts!