fri 29/03/2024

Classical CDs Weekly: Poulenc, Saint-Saëns, Stravinsky | reviews, news & interviews

Classical CDs Weekly: Poulenc, Saint-Saëns, Stravinsky

Classical CDs Weekly: Poulenc, Saint-Saëns, Stravinsky

A Gallic flavour to two period-instrument recordings and classic ballet scores

There's a Gallic flavour to this week's new releases, with two unusual recordings of orchestral music played on period instruments. And there's a set of seminal 20th-century ballet scores, played by a wonderful French orchestra under their much-missed Russian principal conductor.

poulencPoulenc: Concerto for Two Pianos, Concert champêtre, Suite Française, Anima Eterna Brugge/Jos van Immerseel (Zig Zag territoires)

Jos van Immerseel’s period-instrument band have already recorded exciting versions of Beethoven and Berlioz symphonies, and they’re also one of the few groups willing to tackle 20th-century repertoire. This means using early 20th-century French instruments. Piston horns and French bassoons, both sound distinctive, though I’d have liked a touch more wobbly vibrato in the brass tone. The Concerto for Two Pianos is played on a pair of turn-of-the-century Érard instruments, which, Van Immerseel argues, are the pianos which Poulenc would have heard when young. It does work – the soloists (Claire Chevallier and Van Immerseel) are placed back to back, and play with supernatural coordination. This is brilliant, witty music. Slightly slower speeds don’t lead to heaviness, and Poulenc’s gamelan references are more pointed than usual. The slow movement’s Mozart pastiche is suavely elegant. It’s highly entertaining – not as seductive as more polished modern performances, but edgy, exciting and pungent.

The orchestral playing in the Concert champêtre is again brilliant – though I’m not so sure that Katerina Chroboková’s playing a copy of an 18th-century harpsichord was what Poulenc had in mind – there’s a marvellous 1950s recording played on a modern instrument by Aimée van de Wiele which still sounds ideal. Chroboková is still impressive, notably in the helter-skelter fumblings of the last movement with its heart stopping close, where it’s as if Poulenc is telling the listener that he’s had enough of being a clown. Van Immerseel takes up harpsichord duties in the Neo-Classical Suite Française from 1935, a Pulcinella-like reinvention of 17th-century originals. Wit and charm are present in spades.

saint_saensSaint-Saëns: Symphony No 3, Piano Concerto No 4, Les Siècles/François-Xavier Roth (Musicales Actes Sud)

Yet more period-instrument French music, though this time it’s Saint-Saëns, a still-neglected late-Romantic composer who lived until 1921 and was present at the premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite. The Third Symphony is being played next week at the Proms by François-Xavier Roth and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, but here he’s captured live with the orchestra he created, Les Siècles. The period string sonority is more noticeable here than in Anima Eterna’s Poulenc (reviewed above), and the richer orchestral texture conceals some pertinent detail – listen for the rasping low brass six minutes into the first movement, which moves with a real swagger and swing. Roth’s Poco adagio is as graceful as I’ve heard it, the string and wind lines floating over soft, velvety organ tone. The Scherzo is fleet, but most punters will want to hear the work for the big moment at the start of the finale.

A badly balanced organ in this work can be a nasty experience, like a drunken relative barging in on a party. Here, it's a nice touch to have the conductor’s father Daniel on organ duties, playing the famous Cavaillé-Coll organ in the Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris. He is pretty loud, but it’s such a marvellous noise that you’re willing to forgive him. There is a decent coupling, too – wisely placed before the symphony - Saint-Saëns’s Fourth Piano Concerto, played here on an 1874 Érard by Jean-François Heisser. It’s a superb blend of solemnity and insouciance, cunningly constructed. There can’t be many more entertaining ways to spend 25 minutes. The lurid cover of this release is a bit off-putting, but don’t be deterred.

Stravinsky: L’oiseau de feu, Petrouchka, Le sacre de printemps, Pulcinella, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo/Yakov Kreizberg (OPMC Classics)

The late Yakov Kreizberg, brother of Semyon Bychkov, was best known to UK audiences as chief conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra between 1995 and 2000. He became music director of the Monte Carlo Philharmonic in 2007, holding the post until his death earlier this year at the age of 51. Kreizberg made a number of recordings on the orchestra’s own label, and this three-disc set of Stravinsky ballets was taped in June 2010. Kreizberg’s approach is strong on narrative; these performances are some of the more expansive I’ve heard but they never drag. He’s able to make Stravinsky’s episodic structures cohere beautifully, and each of these long works simmers nicely. Hearing the four ballets one after the other makes one think about how appropriately each one ends – the grandiose apotheosis of L’oiseau de feu the inverse of Petrouchka’s downbeat shrug, and the exhilarating violence of Le sacre’s savage close exorcised by Pulcinella’s joyous C major shout.

Kreizberg and his recognisably French-sounding orchestra don’t bludgeon the listener; the emphasis is on displaying the colours and providing unusual transparency to Stravinsky’s thicker textures. In the first three works you’re made more conscious of the Russian roots underpinning the music; Petrouchka’s final tableau teems with local colour and the folk melodies which provide some of Le sacre’s source material are tangy and plangent. And it’s always a rare pleasure to hear Pulcinella in its extended original form, complete with vocal soloists. A fitting memorial to a highly respected conductor, and a very good first choice if you’re looking to discover these works for the first time.

Share this article

Add comment

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters