Ryelandt Chamber music

[Mark Thomas]

We have visitors staying for the Easter weekend, so the music will have to wait until next week in this house at least.

[Double-A]

And the music?

I thought I'd already (implicitly) praised the music.  I think the music is very good indeed though I admit I have just heard the samples on the web site.  They are unusually long and I think allow a preliminary but not unfounded judgement.

The music is not "romantic" I'd say in spite of the use of "old-fashioned" tonality and harmony, it is very much 20th century in its matter-of-fact attitude, its concision and its absence of grand gestures.  Nicely written as ensemble pieces.  Chamber music in the literal sense of the word:  Intimate music for small ensembles and small audiences in small rooms, maybe ideally music to play oneself rather than listen to.

[eschiss1]

Listening to the sonatas on this disc now (streamed over NML- the violin sonata no.4 in E minor, from 1916 but apparently not published until 1976 (by CeBeDeM) which is why you won't find it @ IMSLP! ...though the cello sonata op.22 and the 2nd and 3rd violin sonatas seem to have been published "s.d." in the 1890s so should be digitizable without any issues in Canada and the US.  Several other works on the disc seem to be in Belgian Library manuscripts only. He's still © in the EU for the next almost-20 years tho'... ).

(KBR Belgium has 267 entries in their library for Ryelandt, not so surprisingly . If Toccata continues the series, that could include several sonatines for violin and piano too, and his viola sonata Op.73; also there seems to be a "Sextet voor piano en strijkers op Vlaamse volksliederen" and piano trios etc.)

I've been curious about Ryelandt for some time I suppose, and am glad to have a chance to listen to several major works of his from the 1910s.

So far, enjoyed the E minor sonata...