Belgian
Robert Janssens (born in 1939) is primarily known as a conductor, and he is a professor of conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He's also a prolific composer, and this disc includes five of his concerti.
Janssens' style could be characterized as conservative, but he's definitely an eclectic, drawing freely on a range of twentieth century techniques. Melody is prominent in his work, and the concerti are all conventionally structured in three movements. Within that framework, however,
Janssens writes music that sounds authentically imagined and is never trite or predictable. Except for the flashy second concerto for horn, the works are more concerned with lyrical expressiveness than with virtuosic display, and most are relatively short. The horn is
Janssens' instrument, so the two horn concertos, written in 1968 and 1977, are idiomatically and gratefully written, and Francis Orval plays them with lovely tone and technical assurance. The Concertino for clarinet is an especially lyrical and ingratiating work, played with grace and stylishness by
Ronald van Spaendonck. The composer leads a variety of orchestras in atmospheric, committed accompaniments.