Information concerning
this and other Klara records may be
obtained from:-
Maestro Music Productions
Markstraat, 11
B-3680 Maaseik
Belgium
www.maestromusicproductions.com
Flor Peeters’ name
will probably be familiar to organ buffs.
He was a brilliant concert organist
as well as a composer who consistently
wrote for his instrument throughout
his composing career. His large output,
however, also includes some piano and
chamber music and a good deal of choral
and vocal music (e.g. song cycles and
six settings of the Mass), all of which
is too rarely heard, let alone recorded,
although Peeters recorded some of his
organ works during the LP era. Needless
to say, these recordings are now deleted
and to date have never been re-issued
in CD format.
The present KLARA release
is thus a timely reminder of Peeters’
compositional achievement by presenting
two major works composed at about the
same time: the end of the Second World
War.
In 1943, when Belgium
was still occupied by German troops,
Peeters was invited by a music-loving
German officer to perform in Germany.
Peeters declined the offer and, consequently,
had to flee and seek refuge in the Norbertijnenabdij
in Tongerlo where he was able to complete
a projected organ concerto. This was
completed on 31st December
1944, when the battle of the Ardennes
was at its height. Although Peeters’
Organ Concerto Op.52 is
a purely abstract work, it nevertheless
reflects on the events of that period
and on the circumstances of its composition.
The first movement Allegro opens
with a forceful drum roll (reminiscent,
to my ears at least, of the drum roll
traditionally introducing the Belgian
national anthem) launching a bold heroic
theme pervading the entire movement
which rises up to some mighty climaxes
interspersed by more reflective episodes.
The song-like lyricism of the second
movement Larghetto temporarily
dispels the tension accumulated in the
course of the first movement. The final
Allegro vivo is preceded by a
virtuosic cadenza. Trumpets launch the
Finale, again mostly striving and heroic
in character, and roughly laid-out as
a powerful moto perpetuo ending
in full blaze. Peeters’ modally inflected
music often brings Vaughan Williams
to mind; and, to a certain extent, this
is the organ concerto that Vaughan Williams
might have composed. More importantly
still, it is a work that may unerringly
be placed alongside those by Poulenc,
Hindemith, Langlais, Dupré and
Jongen. Peeters’ Organ Concerto
Op.52 is, no doubt, a major
addition to the repertoire of works
for organ and orchestra, a work all
too rarely heard, which makes this fine
reading the more welcome. It was recorded
in Sint-Rombouts Cathedral where Peeters
was organist for many long years.
The conductor of the
St Rombouts choir, who was also the
director of the Lemmens Institute, asked
several of his former pupils to compose
Mass settings for the jubilee of the
cathedral in 1946, which also roughly
coincided with the liberation of Belgium.
Because of some commitments, Peeters
could not complete his Mass setting
until 1947 and the Missa Festiva
Op.62 for chorus and organ
was first performed at St Rombouts on
Christmas Day 1949. This is a large-scale
setting of great fervour and energy,
celebrating the end of the war while
never losing sight of what the country
had gone through during the war years.
The music thus alternates meditative
episodes and exultant outbursts, such
as the pleading Kyrie, the powerful,
march-like Credo or the moving
Agnus Dei. Another long neglected
major work, this is the most expansive
of Peeters’ six Mass settings. The present
performance, recorded in the church
of the Norbertijnenabdij where the Organ
Concerto was composed, is very fine
indeed.
This is a most desirable
release paying – at long last – a deserved
tribute to a most distinguished composer
whose beautifully crafted music definitely
deserves wider exposure. A must, not
only for organ buffs.
Hubert Culot
Peter Pieters (organ)ab; Flemish
Radio Orchestraa, Flemish Radio Choirb;
Yoel Levia, Vic Neesb 