An auspicious day

[amateur51]

The current top ten are:


1. Eddy Merckx

2. Adolphe Sax

3. Herge (George Remi)

4. Audrey Hepburn

5. Plastic Bertrand

6. Peter Paul Rubens

7. Rene Magritte

8. Georges Lemaitre

9. Albert Claude

10. Leo Baekeland


Yes, Audrey was a surprise to me too... but she was born Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston in Brussels.



I like Belgians.

Creator of Maigret, Georges Simenon

[ARBurton]

Surely something rather different from those offerings. Could Bayreuth really find no better way to mark old Wilhelm's 200th birthday than with the sort of concert performance of extracts that is the staple fare of virtually any provincial concert hall?

Maybe the composer would have taken the opportunity to give his loyal followers some rarities and esoterica: the Hochzeit fragments, some of his reworkings of other peoples' operatic arias, the Kinderkatechismus, a few of his non-Wesendonck songs, a march or two, a couple of piano pieces, the bit he cut from Lohengrin's act three narration...

I agree. I don`t know if you saw this Bert but it was a rather odd affair with Act 1 of DW in the first half. Having said that, really really superb conducting...

[Bert Coules]

I agree. I don't know if you saw this Bert...

I thought I'd recorded it but my receiver let me down. It was doubly annoying because I thought I'd also got the following showing of that silent biopic film about Wagner which was done with live orchestral accompaniment. Alas, no.

[ARBurton]

Sorry to hear that Bert (see PM). I sampled a few mins of the Froehlich film but passed on by. I have this on dvd somewhere but not with this particular musical accompaniment.

[JimD]

Not that I have heard of the four gentlemen you mention

...quite. Famous Belgians are not very...well...famous, are they? I'd have thought Maurice Maeterlinck is more famous than most of that lot. Though I suppose he should be punished for instigating the famous Debussy musical.

[french frank]

Famous Belgians are not very...well...famous, are they?

They make their mark in their fields. Arthur Grumiaux? Mrs Kuijken's boys?

[salymap]

Belgium did rather well for artists didn't they. I have a photo of myself sitting at Hans Memling's feet in Bruge - well, the plinth of the statue there. The whole town was given over to him that day, can't remember why.

[amateur51]

They make their mark in their fields. Arthur Grumiaux? Mrs Kuijken's boys?

Not this lot then?

http://www.mrskirkhams.com/

Sublime, like the man says in the film

[Pabmusic]

And how about Cezar Franck?

Or even César Franck

[Pabmusic]

Orlando di Lasso was born in Mons (although it was not in Belgium then, of course).

[vinteuil]

Or even César Franck

... I think we've done famous Belgians here before. And we have certainly discussed Franck. It was pointed out that when he was born, Liège was under the control of the Netherlands (in the sorting-out of Europe after Napoleon). And then it was pointed out that Franck was really German (if you look at his parentage).

But I still think he's as Belgian as Simenon or Hercule Poirot.

[Pabmusic]

...It was pointed out that when he was born, Liège was under the control of the Netherlands (in the sorting-out of Europe after Napoleon). And then it was pointed out that Franck was really German (if you look at his parentage)...

Belgium didn't exist until 1830 when it broke away from the Netherlands (Britain guaranteed its independence, with our entry into WW1 as a result). I pointed out above that Orlando di Lasso was born in Mons (then in Flanders), so qualifies.

I can't believe we'd insist that Samuel Beckett was British because he was born before Irish independence. Yet when I argued on another thread that Delius was hardly English (two German parents, and he left England at 19) the general feeling was "of course he was!" Complicated isn't it?

[As if she were in on it, Mrs Pab has just found a TV channel showing a film with Jean-Claude van Damme!

[verismissimo]

Or even César Franck

Ysaye? (Pabby to correct. )

[Pabmusic]

Ysaye? (Pabby to correct. )

Anything to oblige. Ysaÿe.

Elgar once conducted Ysaÿe in the Violin Concerto. The First Symphony was in the second half and Ysaÿe sat among the firsts throughout!