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August de Boeck (1865-1929)
Hans Piano Concerto in C Major
(arranged for standard piano by Jozef de Beenhouwer)
I. Moderato 0:00
II. Scherzo: Presto 8:39
III. Allegro 15:10
Jozef de Beenhouwer, piano
Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra
Ivo Venkov, conductor
Julianus Marie August De Boeck (1865 - 1937) was a Flemish composer, organist and music pedagogue. He was the son of organist and director Florentinus (Flor) De Boeck (1826-1892).
From 1880 on he studied organ at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels under Alphonse Mailly, whose assistant he became until 1902. In 1889 he met the young Paul Gilson who became a close friend and, despite being the same age, his teacher for orchestration. Gilson encouraged De Boeck's pursuit of a career in composition. He became an organist at various churches in Belgian villages (1892-1894 in Merchtem, 1894-1920 in Elsene). His academic career continued in 1907 as professor of harmony at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp (1909-1920) and the Brussels Conservatory, and as director of the Conservatory of Mechelen (1921-1930). In 1930 August De Boeck retired to his birthplace, Merchtem. As with Gilson, De Boeck's style was influenced by the Russian Five, and especially Rimsky-Korsakov. Along with Gilson, he introduced impressionist composition in Belgium. He wrote about 400 compositions including vocal work, operas, religious pieces and instrumental compositions. De Boeck’s Concerto for Hans piano (1926-1929) was commissioned by Pierre Hans (1886-1960), an amateur pianist with abnormally thick fingers, who was looking for a way to keep playing the piano. Being an engineer, he contacted the French firm of Pleyel, and together they designed and built a concert grand with two keyboards, with the upper keyboard tuned half a tone higher than the lower one. This created a range of possibilities, like making it easier to play chromatic passages. But it offered other, perhaps more important, advantages as well. For example, it allowed the pianist to repeat complete chords at a very high speed. This way the Hans piano made it possible to use special effects; and it had a highly distinctive sound. It is therefore no wonder that a number of concertos for this new instrument soon saw the light of day, including those by Pierre Hans himself, by Carl Smulders, René Barbier, Ernest d’Agrèves, and also by August De Boeck. The astronomical cost of the instrument strongly hampered the breakthrough of the Hans piano and the outbreak of World War II killed it off.
6 окт 2024
