Adolphe Biarent (1871-1916)
Cello Sonata (1914/1915)
Sonnet for Piano (1904)
Nocturne for Piano (1906)
Serenade for Piano (1903)
HuitMélodies for Cello and Piano (1915)
Romain Dhainaut (cello)
Rafael Theissen (piano)
rec. 2024, Palais des Beaux Arts de Charleroi, Belgium
Pavane ADW7604 [67]
The contemporary fate of Adolphe Biarent’s music is worth retelling. Cellist Romain Dhainaut relates it in his concise, relevant notes. Briefly, Guy Galand, a long-time champion of Wallonia’s culture and cultural life, received a phone call from the concierge of the building then occupied by the Institut Destrée. That political, social and cultural institute was founded in 1938 under a much longer denomination, changed to its present name in 1960. It was on the verge of relocating to new premises. The concierge had found in the attic piles of papers “covered in strange signs” (sic), and she wanted to make sure that the papers could be thrown away. Galand ran to the institute and took them all away. It turned out that those were Biarent’s manuscripts that might have disappeared without a trace.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, Adolphe Biarent was an important figure on the musical scene in Charleroi, then an important industrial area (coal mines, steel and glass works) with a rather limited musical life. Born not far from Charleroi, he began music education, and soon his talents became evident. He studied locally, and then his parents sent him to the Brussels Conservatoire. He received further training at the Ghent Conservatoire from the composer Emile Mathieu (1844-1932). (Mathieu’s large-scale choral-orchestral work Freyhir from 1883 is available on Musique en Wallonie CYP 5683.)
On his return to Charleroi, Biarent taught at a local music school and composed inasmuch as his free time allowed him. His 1901 cantata Oedipeà Colonne won him a composition Prix de Rome. The prize enabled him to travel around Europe a bit. He returned to Charleroi to devote himself to composition and, more important, to foster solid musical life in Charleroi where he taught at the Royal Conservatoire. One of his best-known student was the young cellist Fernand Quinet, who later became a distinguished composer and founded the Orchestre Symphonique de Liège. (As an aside: Quinet and his orchestra gave the first Belgian performance of Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis.)
Biarent was quite busy as a teacher and administrator. Then there was his time- and energy-consuming preoccupation with creating and maintaining in his hometown musical activity, previously nearly non-existent. Yet he managed to composed quite a lot, notably for orchestra; the likes of Vincent d’Indy conducted some of his orchestral scores. The bulk of his output is for orchestra, for example the symphonic poem Trenmor (1905), Symphony in D minor (1908), Three Sonnets (1909/1910, for Cello and Orchestra) and the colourful Rhapsodie wallonne (1911, for Piano and Orchestra). The last movement of the latter quotes a local popular song.
Biarent also composed piano and chamber music. His major achievements were the Douze Préludes Moyen-Âge (1913) for piano, the imposing Piano Quintet in D minor (1912) and the substantial Cello Sonata recorded here. His small but substantial output includes a handful of songs, such as Huit Mélodies (1915, for Mezzo-soprano and Piano).
Biarent’s death went almost unnoticed: the country was preoccupied with war and its devastation.
As noted, the Cello Sonata is one of Biarent’s most substantial chamber works. The music does not try to be programmatic, but it inevitably bears the burden of the war raging, principally, in Flanders and Northern France. The outer of the four movements are the weightiest. The first movement, Poco lento – Ben moderato, begins with an ominous Mesto; the music quickly opens out to go through a large variety of moods and build up to massive climaxes before a progressive return to the opening mood. There follows a short, technically exacting, aggressive scherzo, Presto furioso. The slow movement, Lamento (Adagio non troppo) is short, poignant and eloquent. The final movement again opens with dramatic gestures. The troubled and tense opening of the first movement is recalled before leading into a somewhat more relaxed, brief restatement of the Lamento when the cello sound slowly dissolves into its highest register.
The Cello Sonata was given its first performance in 1917 by Biarent’s pupil Fernand Quinet. It is one of the finest of its genre composed in Belgium at that time, and clearly deserves wider exposure.
The three piano pieces, recorded here for the first time, do not call for much comment. Sonnet is a dreamy love song, Nocturne is warmly lyrical, and Serenade is a colourful vignette.
Biarent wrote Huit Mélodies for mezzo-soprano and piano, but the version for cello and piano recorded here is his own. The literary sources are quite varied. Paul Verlaine and Paul Fort rub shoulders with less well-known poets of that period. I think that the version for voice and piano has never been recorded, so it is difficult to have a clear idea about these songs. One can admit that they are a fine set of pieces for cello on their own, and that the whole sounds remarkably well.
This most welcome release is a fair survey of some chamber works by an important composer. His considerable talent could not blossom as it should have, and his achievement might have vanished. Fortunately enough, most of his small but significant output has been preserved and given wider exposure, thanks to clear-sighted scholars and performers. (Most orchestral works have been recorded by Pierre Bartholomée and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège; the recordings are available.)
Romain Dhainaut and pianist Rafael Theissen play with assurance and commitment, and they appear to love the music clearly and audibly. This release, very fine on all counts, may be recommended to anyone interested in Belgian musical life before World War I.
Hubert Culot
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