Schampaert, J :: Notturno e Danza

Jozef ('Jef') Schampaert's 1952 Nocturne and Danse for flute and piano, written as a concours piece for the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp in Belgium, is a bit of a curious beast. While the rest of the Belgian school was experimenting with a return to lush romanticism (Alpaerts, Maes, and the musical progeny of Benoit), or beginning to prod the tonal bounds of listenable 12-tone and serialism (Constant and Verbesselt), Schampaert took towards a different sound: that of the Impressionists, transmutated through his distinctly Flemish touch.

The Nocturne and Danse is no exception. The core of the Nocturne is a relatively straightforward melody, but it's quickly pulled apart into Debussyian fragments and melodic cells - a rhapsody in miniature, with touches of Ibert's stranger runs and figures through. The Danse retains a clearer sense of melody, but one that's even closer to Debussy and Ravel - grace notes and intertwined, changing runs are integral melodic material, by turns dark then playful. A small cadenza again touches on a sense of Ibert before the piece is brought to a quiet close.

For advanced players.

Metropolis Music presents Jef Schampaert's Notturno e Danza (or Nocturne and Dance) as part of the Belgian Repertoire Series. This new repertoire series (ranging from solo repertoire to chamber works) draws from the best of the old Metropolis catalogue. Notably, this repertoire series includes a large number of compositions written as required works for conservatories throughout Europe. Though most musicians are more familiar with the concours titles from the Conservatoire de Paris, these works written for the Belgian schools are as complex - and as musically intriguing - as their Parisian counterparts and range from simple sight-reading solo works to rich, multi-layered quintets and concertos.