Becko was a
Walloon engineer, one of the few Walloons able to speak acceptable Dutch, and
at the end of his too short life the owner of a magnificent collection of
20.000 shellac records (including extreme rarities on PathÈ), lots of
cylinders etc. I know several collectors who had to deal with Becko and he
was not one to sell cheap or to be generous to other members of the tribe.
Anyway his wife and daughter sold the collection in its entirety to De koning
Boudewijn (king Baldwin in English and not Baudouin as they always mistakenly
call themselves) Foundation which handed the treasure to the Koninklijke
Bibliotheek (Royal Library) at the Kunstberg in Brussels where appropriate
measures will be taken to make it accessible.
Still it is a reality that in the matter of collectorsí records,
Foundation and Becko family succeeded in making some decisions which lessen
somewhat the pleasure of this important issue. The two CDs contain 60
interesting records and nowhere, not in the liner notes, not on the sleeve,
can one find a date. Granted it is not always easy to have an exact date of
recording but The Record Collector has proven for almost 60 years that with
some research one can come near. This is especially galling as I donít know
who had the brilliant idea of putting all these selections in alphabetical
order per singer. Now we get an acoustic followed by an electric followed by
a cylinder followed by an acetate etc. Donít try to look for evolution in
the style of singing or the art of recording. The booklet is very luxuriously
illustrated with many photographs but the notes themselves are far from
interesting. Though a lot of the singers are very obscure, there are no
biographical details. The buyer will have to purchase Dick Soperís
ëBelgian Opera Houses and Singersí and a complete set of Kutsch-Riemens
if he wants some details on the singers. Nevertheless page after page is
devoted to Mr. Becko (do we really have to know he liked Tony Poncet ?) and
the kind of records he collected. Maybe this kind of non-information was a
condition imposed by the family. A small essay on Belgian singers during the
shellac days is just an enumeration of names. The koning Boudewijn Foundation
is one of the last curiosities pretending that Belgium should stay as it is,
denying the huge cleft on every issue between Flemings and Walloons.
Therefore the Foundation should take care not to publish an essay that is
offensive to one of two peoples. The author, FrÈdÈric Lemmers is constantly
referring to translations of songs and arias in Flemish. By now, Mr. Lemmers
should finally know and acknowledge that Dutch is the language of Flanders;
Flemish being a dialect known from Dunkirk (in France) to Middelburg (in the
Netherlands) but not in the former duchy of Brabant where I am living though
it is the heart of nowadays Flanders. I can assure Mr. Lemmers that the
non-French selections on the CDs are sung in excellent Dutch, understood by
everybody from Amsterdam to Brussels. This condescending attitude results in
some mistakes as well. There was never a tenor Joseph Sterkens ; it was Jef
Sterkens though ëJosephí may well have been written on his birth
certificate as he was born during the Walloon colonization of Flanders (nor
is there a Joseph FortunÈ Verdi, though these are the names on the birth
certificate too). The creator of Werther was not Van Dyck but Van Dijck as
proven by the tenorís own signature.
Happily for the American collector, this will pale against the treasures
to be found on these CDs. The transfers are excellent, pitched during long
hours of work by my friend (a Walloon, would you believe it ?) Georges
Cardol. Georges is a teacher of physics and a talented amateur-baritone,
using the score, a piano and his gut feeling when pitching. He takes such
care that, not being a shellac guy myself, he succeeded in instilling doubts
in me when listening to some selections. Normally, I would have pronounced
the ValËre Blouse a tone too high but knowing Cardolís care I probably am
wrong. Was Blouse Flemish or Walloon ? some will ask. Neither. The producers
(Lemmers, Couvreur, Cardol ) sold the idea of these CDs to the Foundation by
telling them that it was an overview of Belgian singers and then they picked
out recordings of some of the most rare and interesting singers in the Becko
collection, a lot of them French.
The CDs start with four very fine recordings by Henri Albers, a Dutch
baritone while French singers like Blouse, Deschamps-Jehin, Dubois, Gilibert,
Gilly, Imbart, Leblanc, Saint-Cricq etc. are well represented. Therefore this
is foremost a collection of singers who sang in the opera houses of Brussels,
Ghent, Antwerp and LiËge. Of course there are a lot of Flemish and Walloon
singers too, not all of them exceptionally talented but represented by
recordings which are extremely rare and almost not to be found elsewhere on
CD ( exceptions are well known French singers like Soulacroix who is on well
pitched ìTruesoundî but Saint-Cricq and Landouzy are only to be found on
notoriously bad ìMalibranî.) Several names were completely unknown to me
and it doesnít come as a surprise there are some dull dogs among them
(DectÈry: squeezed; Delvoye: great voice but rough style). But with others
we are in for a surprise: unknown Dubois who is almost as good as RenÈ
VerdiËre; baritone Emiel van Bosch whom I finally can appreciate due to the
fine transfers; Jeanne Montfort who made me sit up wit her VivandiËre. Other
names will be unknown in the States though they still ring a bell in this
country but Iím sure every collector will be surprised by the wonderful
spinto voice of Claudine Boons, by Madeleine FarrËre so much better and less
shrill than better known Clara Clairbert. Tenor Charles Fontaine has a whole
CD, produced by Georges Cardol for his friends only (lucky me) but deserves
to have an issue widely available. I admire the producers for avoiding
clichÈ names like Bovy, Clairbert and especially Ansseau which would make
this issue less interesting as they are already well represented on CD. And I
admire them for including items by great names, even if the singing is less
than great but now at last we can judge for ourselves if we appreciate the
dry tone of Georges Imbart de la Tour or Georgette Leblanc. And the creator
record of Flemish tenor Ernest van Dijck (ìPourquoi me rÈveillerî though
he actually created Werther in German) proves that his best years were gone
but that the voice was ample indeed. For 15 Euros this is a bargain and I
hope these CDs will sell well. Take care to ask for the English language
version. Welcome is the news that other labels will be allowed to mine the
Becko collection too.
Jan Neckers
image=http://www.operatoday.com/Becko.png
image_description=Opera.be : The Yves Becko Collection
product=yes
product_title=Opera.be: The Yves Becko Collection
product_by=Albers, Arral, Assy, BergÈ, Blouse, Boons, CrabbÈ, Colmant, DeclÈry, Delvoye, Deschamps-Jehin, Dubois, FarrËre, Fontaine, Forgeur, Ghasne, Gilibert, Gilly, Imbart de la Tour, Lasalle, Leblanc, LefËvre, Lheureux, MarÈchal, Mertens, Montfort, NotÈ, Revel, Saint-Cricq, Soulacroix, Sterkens, Swolfs, van Bosch, van Dijck, Verlet, Ysaˇe.
product_id=The koning Boudewijnfoundation 1622 [2CDs]
price=15 Ä
product_url=http://www.kbs-frb.be/CODE/page.cfm?id_page=153&id=412&lang=EN