From Our Own
"Hoe schoon de morgendauw", a poem by perhaps Flanders' most creative poet, Guido Gezelle, set to music by Lodewijk Mortelmans: it is early in the morning and I wake up with this song in my head. That soothes the day. Last night I heard it sung again. 'Listen and read' along…
The Peter Benoit Fonds has been organizing the Peter Benoit Prize ceremony since last year, coupled with the annual Peter Benoit commemoration. None other than one of Flanders' most erudite pianists was honored, Jozef De Beenhouwer.
He is one of the few musicians in our country who consistently performed and still performs the rich Flemish repertoire of Romantic music with outstanding knowledge as a true promoter. This gifted man has always remained modest about it himself, positioning himself as a devoted interpreter.
Peter Verhoeven, chairman of the Peter Benoit Fonds, delivered a laudatio written by that other tireless promoter of Flemish music, Michaël Scheck. The audience immediately learned, hot off the press, that the foundation will collaborate with the Peter Benoitmuseum in Harelbeke, the birthplace of the composer who founded the Royal Antwerp Conservatory.
The first laureate of the Peter Benoit Prize was composer Frits Celis. Jozef De Beenhouwer fits very well with that. The difference in the celebration? Celis was allowed to listen to music, De Beenhouwer had to organize his own festive concert. And did he ever! Besides some beautifully performed better-known piano works by Marinus De Jong, Lodewijk Mortelmans and Peter Benoit, he accompanied soprano Liesbeth Devos in songs by the aforementioned composers and also by Joseph Ryelandt. By the latter, the Spiegel String Quartet performed a piano quintet with the celebrated laureate at the piano.
Do we Flemings realize what quality we have in our composers from the past and present and in performing musicians? The Peter Benoit Fonds certainly does, and we learn that there was once a time, certainly until before WWI, when that awareness was very strong. When you read how our musicians were celebrated like kings, with processions and grand receptions, we have drifted far from appreciating the skill of our own people. Let us take an example from the past to, with renewed healthy and responsible pride, stand up for our own music.
Varied and Moving Program
Jozef De Beenhouwer immediately let himself go as a great interpreter and virtuoso in the works of Marinus De Jong. In the other solo works, the better-known ones by Lodewijk Mortelmans, the Wielewaalt and the Leeuwerkt, and the well-known third Fantaisie by Peter Benoit – it was wonderful to hear this precisely at this celebration – De Beenhouwer excelled. You could listen to such piano playing for hours.
In a selection of very carefully chosen songs he accompanied Liesbeth Devos. What a sense of text and expression; whoever was not moved by "Hoe schoon de Morgendauw" and even more by "Als de Ziele luistert", cannot be moved. But also the C'est en toi, bien-aimé is pure Platonic elevated Love, certainly in this poignant performance. In the songs Lied van Mignon (Kennst du das Land), 't Is Stille, 'k En hoore U nog niet and especially Ego Flos – the latter two set to music by Ryelandt – Devos excelled with a full, creamy soprano tone and far-carrying, space-filling sound. Liesbeth Devos continues to grow in her interpretations. A fascinating evolution.
The very rarely performed Piano Quintet No. 1 by Ryelandt was played with Jozef De Beenhouwer at the keyboard and the Spiegel String Quartet. This work from 1901 is of great Romantic quality and may be placed alongside many more frequently performed works from this period. It is a stage piece that finally needs to come out of the shadows. There is only one recording of it, realized with the same musicians in 2008 by Phaedra in the renowned CD series 'In Flanders Fields'.
The weather outside may have been really miserable with too much cold wind and rain, the sun shone all the more in the Antwerp Vleeshuis. Bravo!
- WHAT: Peter Benoit Prize Ceremony
- WHO: Jozef De Beenhouwer, Liesbeth Devos, Spiegel String Quartet, Peter Benoit Fonds
- WHERE & WHEN: Instrumentenmuseum Vleeshuis, Antwerpen, 12 maart 2019
- PHOTOS: © Klassiek Centraal