XXI Music Publishing

Founded in January 2018, XXI Music Publishing is a Belgium-based music publisher structured around two key pillars:

The promotion of musical heritage through a pivotal project, the Ravel Edition, driven by an innovative scientific process that combines musicological and artistic expertise. Since it released Volume 1 Bolero, the Ravel Edition has brought together dozens of artists, orchestras and institutions from across the world to give the works of Maurice Ravel the recognition and exposure they deserve. Backed by this wealth of internationally renowned expertise, XXI Music Publishing is now taking another step forwards in its editorial mission with a series of publications dedicated to César Franck, due to be released in 2022 in celebration of 200 years since his birth, and a new revised edition of Claude Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, under the guidance of conductor François-Xavier Roth.

Collaboration with internationally renowned contemporary composers such as Jean-Pascal Beintus and Benoît Mernier.

XXI Music Publishing is a member of the Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique (SACEM). 

Jean-Pascal Beintus was born in Toulouse on 1966. He grew up in Nice and started his musical education at the local Conservatoire (Double bass, piano and composition) and joined the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique in Paris and Lyon. In 1983, he was appointed doublebass player at the Opera National de Lyon under Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Fond of his orchestral job, while discussing with his colleagues and conductors, in parallel to his job as an orchestra player, he  composed a Concerto for Doublebass and Orchestra (Samskara).

In 1996 Kent Nagano, Music Director of the Orchestra of the Opera de Lyon, decided to promote Mr Beintus’s works and commissioned him several scores for his concert seasons of Opéra de Lyon. A new road was open for Mr Beintus therefore he decided to begin an official career as a full time composer.  To date, he composed for the Opéra de Lyon, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Variations on a Gershwin’s tune for piano duet and orchestra), Hallé Orchestra in Manchester (Couleurs cuivres, Concerto for brass quintet and orchestra), Berkeley Symphony Orchestra  in California (Luna tree), Accademia  Santa Cecilia in Roma (Concerto for Clarinet –  dedicated to Alessandro Carbonare), German Symphony Orchester in Berlin (Le Petit Prince, Suite), Russian National Orchestra (Wolf Tracks – recorded on Pentatone by Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev – Grammy Award 2004).

Since his childhood as a big fan of John Williams, Mr Beintus dream is to compose films scores. He filled his dream by joining Alexandre Desplat’s team first as his first assistant and main orchestrator. With Alexandre Desplat, Mr Beintus works on all the main international blockbusters since the past decade: Harry Potter, King’s Speech, Argo, Imitation game, Zero Dark Thirty, Tree of life, Shape of Water, Valerian, etc.). Mr Beintus composed the original movie soundtracks for Leonardo di Caprio’s documentaries (11th hour and Carbon). In 2016 Mr Beintus worked together with Alexandre Desplat in the original score of Marseille (HBO) and they will  continue their collaboration on the season 2 (2017). In 2017 Mr Beintus composed the original score for Michel Cymès’s Hippocrate aux enfers (France 2).

In 2019 Mr Beintus’s Fantaisie concertante for trumpet, piano and string orchestra was performed in Colmar, Mons and Antalya (Turkey) by the Orchestre royal de Chambre de Wallonie (conducted by Frank Braley) and in Lille by the Orchestre de Picardie during the Lille Piano Festival 2019.  His Le Petit Prince was performed in Monte-Carlo (Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo) and Katowice (Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra) in 2019 and recorded by Alexandra Conunova (violon), Bryn Lewis (Harp) and the Members of the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Quentin Hindley (Label 21 Music). This recording regularly appears in digital music charts. During the 2021/2022 season, this work has been performed by the Orchestre Colonne and the Orchestre de Besançon Franche-Comté. 

Together with his accomplice Sylvain Morizet, pianist Jean-Pascal Beintus is all set to take part in an ambitious project for two pianos dedicated to the film music of Charlie Chaplin. The premiere is scheduled for 8 May 2022 at the Théâtre du Jorat (Swiss) and will be narrated by Eugène Chaplin himself.

Benoît Mernier was born in Belgium in 1964. He lives and works in Brussels.

Benoît Mernier studied organ under Firmin Decerf, Jean Ferrard and Jean Boyer. He graduated at the Royal Conservatory of Liège and Conservatory of Lille inmany subjects, including the Higher Diploma in organ. He discovered today's music through Claude Ledoux, Henri Pousseur, Bernard Foccroulle, Célestin Deliège and Philippe Boesmans, whom he studied composition with for several years.

He spends his time teaching, performing organ concerts and composing. After having taught organ, improvisation, musical analysis and harmony inseveral Higher Schools of Arts in Belgium, he currently teaches organ at the Brussels Royal Conservatory. In addition, he teaches composition at the Queen Elisabeth Chapel as part of the ENOA (European Network of Opera Houses).

Benoît Mernier holds organ recitals in many European countries, in Japan, in Mexico and in Canada. He has recorded several CDs, one of which awarded theGrand Prize of the Académie du disque Charles Cros. His repertoire ranges fromearly music (17th and 18th century) to romantic music and contemporary works.

Several of his works have been awarded by the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), the International Rostrum of Composers (IRC) sponsored by UNESCO, the Royal Academy of Belgium, the Paul Gilson Prize of the French-speaking Public Radios,...

The Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition commissioned him to write the compulsory work for the singing session in 2004. He has been composer-in-residence at the Centre for Fine Arts of Brussels and at the Austrian Carinthischer Sommer festival, as well as guest of honor at the Festival de Wallonie in 2008. 

His first opera commissioned by « La Monnaie », Frühlings Erwachen, was premiered there in 2007. It has since been performed both at the « Opera du Rhin » in Strasbourg and in 2015 by the International Opera Academy as a new production conducted by Filip Rathé in astaging by Guy Joosten. The label Cyprès has released several records devoted to his works including a CD / DVD box of his opera, awarded a "Diapason d'Or" (www.cypres-records.com). The book "L'Eveil du Printemps,naissance d’un opera" published by Mardaga was dedicated to him.

His second opera, La Dispute, also commissioned by La Monnaie, was created under the musical direction of Patrick Davin in a staging by Karl-Ernst and Ursel Herrmann. The Koussevitzky Foundation and the American Library of Congress commissioned him a new piece for the Pro Arte Quartet that was recorded in the USA. After writing a violin concerto for Lorenzo Gatto that was released on CD (Cyprès), he wrote a cycle based on Emily Dickinson poems for La Monnaie Youth Choir and Symphony Orchestra, along with an organ concerto premiered by Olivier Latry at the inauguration of the new organ of the Centre for Fine Arts of Brussels, the recordings of which earned him the granting of the "Octaves de la musique"in 2019. The recording of his organ work Pange Lingua performed by himself and released by the German label Aeolus, has received a "Diapason d'or" award. In celebration of its thirtieth anniversary, the Ars Musica festival commissioned him to write a new work for the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège. At the request of the Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie in Brussels, Benoît Mernier also arranged Choral No.2 in B Minor by César Franck for organ and orchestra. In 2021, he composed the soundtrack for a feature film by director François Pirot.

Benoît Mernier is an organist at the Notre Dame au Sablon church in Brussels and curator of the new organ of the Centre for Fine Arts of Brussels. Since 2007, he has been a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium in the Fine Arts section.

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) is one of the most highly renowned composers in the history of music. His solo piano and chamber works, symphonic frescos and operas are universally celebrated and performed by musicians on every continent season after season. 

Just like the great works of writers and playwrights, it is crucial that Maurice Ravel’s musical masterpieces are given the critical attention they deserve in the form of new scientific editions based on original sources (the composer’s manuscripts, parts belonging to Ravel himself and to his peers and contemporaries, comparative works of the first printed editions, etc.). 

And so, Ravel Edition was born, initiated by a group of renowned musicologists and musicians united by their passion for the works of Maurice Ravel, published in Belgium by XXI Music Publishing ASBL.  

This scientific endeavour, offering a collection of editions that are free of the numerous inaccuracies found in previous publications, pays homage to the composer in a bid to spread his name further and wider amongst both professional and amateur musicians, and across the broader community of music lovers worldwide.

Guided by the expertise of its Publishing Committee, formed of professionals from the publishing and music industry, and drawing on the vast experience of the renowned musicians that make up its Peer Review Group, the Ravel Edition project successfully combines the specialist knowledge of expert musicologists with the interpretive insight of experienced artists, resulting in the publication of a world-class scientific edition.  

Volume 1 of the Ravel Edition, published in November 2018 and dedicated to the composer’s Bolero, offers a brand-new perspective by presenting the original “1928 Ballet” version for the very first time, in addition to a revised edition of the “1929 Concert” version. It was this version that was selected by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam for its performance of the work in January 2019, conducted by George Benjamin. It was also subsequently performed by the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse (K. Mäkelä), the Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Lyon (D. Rustioni), the Orquesta Nacional de España (J. Mena), the Euskadiko Orkestra (R. Trevino), the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (J. Vicent), and, during the 2019-20 season, by the likes of the Orchestre de Paris (X. Zhong), Les Siècles (F-X. Roth), the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège (G. Madaras), the Orchestre national de Lille (J. Vicent), and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (V. Petrenko and K. Mäkelä).

Volume 2 (2019), dedicated to the composer’s Piano Concerto in G Major was commissioned by the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Orchestre national d’Auvergne and the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse. The première of this revised edition will be performed on Friday 10 January 2019 by Javier Perianes (piano), with the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, under the baton of Josep Pons. 

Ravel’s 1922 orchestration of Modest Moussorgski’s Pictures at an Exhibition (Volume 3 2019-20) has also been revised. To date, we have only produced a revised edition of the orchestral parts (we expect to publish a critical edition in 2020). This 2019 edition was commissioned by Les Siècles, the Fondation Ravel, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Gürzenich Orchester in Cologne. It will be performed by Les Siècles with François-Xavier Roth at the Philharmonie de Paris in November 2020 as part of a cycle of Ravel’s works, and will be recorded for Harmonia Mundi.

Volume 4 is devoted to the Concerto for the Left Hand, this revised edition was commissioned by Louis Langrée and Bertrand Chamayou and commissioned by the Maurice Ravel Foundation, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire and the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse.

Volume 5 is dedicated to Tzigane - Rapsodie de concert (violin and orchestra version), this revised edition is at the initiative of the violinist Renaud Capuçon.

A revised edition of Mother Goose (ballet) has been available since spring 2021. The premiere of this new edition was  performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Wilson.

The next editions will be devoted to the String Quartet andTzigane in its piano version.

More about the Ravel Edition  : www.raveledition.com 

XXI Music Publishing presents a new revised edition of Pelléas et Mélisande by French composer Claude Debussy, based on the eponymous play penned by Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck. 

This edition has been compiled under the direction of conductor François-Xavier Roth.  

“Pelléas et Mélisande played a very special part in my journey as a conductor: it’s the first opera I ever conducted in 2002 (…),” explains François-Xavier Roth. 

Regarding this new edition, the conductor adds, “In my work as a musicologist, I draw on a range of invaluable resources, including a variety of information given to me very kindly by my colleague and friend Louis Langrée, historical documents kept at the Royaumont Abbey, and the artistic choices made by Pierre Boulez. Resources that enable me, in 2021, to make decisions relating to the orchestration and even the singers’ punctuation, and to the layout of the orchestra.”

The Full score and set of parts are available on sale from XXI Music Publishing : sales@21-music.be

This edition is not available in territories where the score is still under copyright.

In December 2022, in celebration of 200 years since the birth of César Franck, XXI Music Publishing is thrilled to be moving forwards in its mission to promote our musical hertiage by launching a series of publications dedicated to the Franco-Belgian composer’s works.

As a Belgian company itself, the cultural legacy that has shaped the history of French-Belgian relations is an area that XXI Music Publishing holds particularly close to its heart.

Our approach towards realising this significant ambition will balance modernity, for example through the orchestration of César Franck’s Choral II for Organ and Orchestra by Belgian composer Benoît Mernier (2020), with tradition, through revised editions based on original manuscripts preserved at various research libraries.

In collaboration with the Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie in Brussels, XXI Music Publishing has co-published a revised edition of symphonic poem Le Chasseur Maudit, drawing on parts handwritten by the composer himself, preserved at the Morgan Library in New York, and other scores previously belonging to several illustrious conductors.

The premiere of this new 2021 edition will be performed by the Orchestre Symphonique de La Monnaie under the baton of Alain Altinoglu as part of the ensemble’s new season opening concert on Sunday 5 September 2021 at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. The printed score opens with an introduction by musicologist and César Franck specialist Joël-Marie Fauquet.

Between now and December 2022, this catalogue will gradually be expanded with other revised editions, bringing together some of the world’s most prestigious musical institutions and artists in a bid to offer César Franck’s works the international exposure and appreciation they deserve.