Serge Belarey

Serge Belarey was a Belgian composer born in 1912. His exact place of birth and details about his family background, musical education and professional career are currently unknown.
Belarey was active as a composer for several decades. Piano music occupies a particularly important place in his output, but he also composed for flute, clarinet, saxophone, violin, double bass, accordion and voice, as well as concertante works. A number of his compositions were published by the Brussels music publisher Éditions Musicales J. Maurer and some of these works remained available in print for many years.

Belarey's son Serge Bémant became a professional pianist and later professor of chamber music at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He performed and recorded with several prominent Belgian musicians, including the violinist Lola Bobesco and the cellist Edmond Baert. His career connects the Belarey family closely with the professional musical life of Brussels.

Only a small part of Belarey's output appears to have been published, but his surviving and documented works show a broad range of interests. These include salon and character pieces for piano, pedagogical music, chamber music, songs and larger concertante works. Several titles, such as "Liesse à Sloutsk", "Slavonic Dance" and the Piano Sonata "Les cavaliers des steppes", suggest an interest in Eastern European or Slavic subjects, although no conclusion about Belarey's own family origins can presently be drawn from this.

The exact date of Serge Belarey's death has not yet been established. He was still alive and musically active in 1986 and therefore died sometime after that year.


The best known part of Serge Belarey is his work catalogue. I could find information about the following compositions:


  • Méditation, for piano, op. 1 no. 2
  • Prélude et fugue, for piano, op. 1 no. 3
  • Valse "Echo", for piano, op. 3 no. 1
  • Waltz "Hésitation", for piano, op. 3 no. 2
  • La grève – Bords de mer, for piano, op. 7 no. 2
  • Echo des Pyrénées, for piano, op. 7 no. 3
  • Pantomimes, twelve pieces for piano, op. 8
  • Marche nuptiale, for piano, op. 9 no. 3
  • Marche militaire, for piano, op. 9 no. 4
  • Préludes, for piano, op. 10
  • Liesse à Sloutsk, for piano, op. 11 no. 2
  • Vendanges, for piano, op. 12 no. 1
  • La Sevillana, for piano, op. 12
  • Vida en España, for piano, op. 12 no. 2
  • Danse orientale, for piano, op. 12 no. 4
  • La libellule et la fleur, for flute and piano, op. 13 no. 1
  • Impromptu, for piano, op. 13 no. 2
  • Illusion, for soprano and piano, op. 13 no. 3
  • Blue Fantasy Concerto, for alto saxophone and orchestra, op. 14 no. 1
  • Piano Concerto "Sincérité. Foi. Amour", op. 14 no. 2
  • Danses contemporaines, for piano, op. 15
  • Conte de fée, for piano, op. 16 no. 2
  • Elégie, for double bass and piano, op. 17 no. 2
  • Chromatic Form, for piano, op. 18 no. 1
  • Flux & Reflux, for piano, op. 18 no. 2
  • Automation, for piano, op. 20 no. 3
  • Variations on an English Theme: Reminiscences, for piano, op. 20 no. 4
  • Slavonic Dance, for piano, op. 20 no. 5
  • Contrast Concerto, for violin and piano, op. 21 no. 2
  • Piano Sonata "Les cavaliers des steppes", op. 22 no. 1
  • Andante "Candeur", for piano, op. 23 no. 1
  • Jour de fête, op. 24 no. 1
  • Pour jeunes pianistes, for piano, op. 25
  • Eglogue, for flute and piano

Blue fantasy concerto


In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the "Blue fantasy concerto" for saxophone and orchestra op.14 no.1 by Serge Belarey. I only hold manuscripts of the piano reduction of the work and a few orchestral parts, which might be incomplete. One manuscript has a registration stamp of the SABAM, dated 25 May 1955. Therefore the work was very likely composed at that year. The work was at least one time performed on 18 April 1986 at "A L'Atelier" in Brussels by Rohny Ventat (saxophone) and Serge Bemant (piano). The newspaper review marks this performance as the "Belgian premiere". The work later entered the international saxophone repertoire and was listed by Jean-Marie Londeix in his repertory of music for saxophone.

Belarey_BlueFantasyCto.pdf


Piano concerto


In my possession is also the autograph manuscript of the piano concerto "Sincerite. Foi. Amour" op.14 no.2 by Serge Belarey. The manuscript is not dated, but contains many corrections by the composer. Among these corrections are cancellations of complete pages of the manuscript done with long stripes from an English speaking newspaper. In one of the newspaper stripes one can read the year 1986. So this composition was very likely composed in this year.

Belarey_PianoCto.pdf