From Belgium with Love

Jean Hippolyte Louël Oscar couldn’t have imagined in 1992 that, more than 12 years after writing his Clarinet Concerto, an album would be compiled containing other Clarinet Concertos exclusively written by Flemish composers. Born in very different periods in time, the Clarinet Concertos of all four Belgian composers have been written in the course of 10 years. The oldest work dates back to 1990 and the youngest to 1999. Each of the 4 composers has his own specific style: Brossé’s music is melodic and narrative; Louël’s is colourful and impressionistic; the dodecaphonic, but always melodic music is typical for Verbesselt and finally there is the typical narrative and colourful style of Jan Van der Roost. The 4 pieces are all bound together in an exquisite warm, sonorous sounding clarinet playing by Eddy Vanoosthuyse. Driven as he is, he compiled a wonderful program and recorded it, showing high technical and musical qualities. Once again Eddy Vanoosthuyse makes us feel that the clarinet is an extraordinary instrument. His talent combined with these four compositions, this recording definitely is “From Belgium with Love”.