Classical Editor: Rob Barnett                               Music Webmaster Len Mullenger: Len@musicweb-international.com


ANTHOLOGIE DE MUSIQUE LUXEMBOURGEOISE Vols 2 & 5

Vol. 2
Marcel Wengler
 Symphonie No. 2
Jeannot Heinen
Konzertstück Op. 37 Polarisation Op. 56
Johny Fritz
Mouvement pour cordes et percussions
Vol. 5
Georges Lentz
'Caeli ennarant….' 1
Marcel Wengler
Die weisse Wildnis, Konstellationen

Orchestre Symphonique de Radio-Télé-Luxembourg Conducted by Marcel Wengler
Editions LGNM (un-numbered) [53.35] & [73.51]
LGNM Luxembourg Society for Contemporary Music

It would be all too easy to jokingly refer to these discs as perhaps two of the most obscure classical CDs available anywhere in the world. The booklets make it clear that there are at least six volumes in this series and my initial thought was 'can there really be enough contemporary music from that tiny country Luxembourg to fill six CDs?'. And, as if to make life really difficult, the producers did not feel it necessary to provide catalogue numbers.

But this is not April 1 - I listened to these fascinating discs over the Christmas holidays and I write on New Year's Day. My time was well spent.

Marcel Wengler is clearly the force behind the recording and release of these CDs. A pupil of Henze (composition) and Celibidache and Markevitch (conducting) he was born in 1946 and currently divides his time between composing concert and film music and guest conducting. On the evidence of these CDs he is a fine conductor and a more than competent composer.

Of his three works spread over the two discs, the Second Symphony (1982) is perhaps the most experimental and the least satisfactory. He states in his notes 'Can anyone compose a symphony today without guilt at having misapplied the word "symphony" to what is in effect only a larger work for orchestra? This present work constitutes an attempt to answer this question in the affirmative. My symphony … contains numerous elements and motifs alternately working together and competing …. developing, destroying or just changing each other.' For those who find the idea of 'music as random thought process' an attractive proposition, this work will prove stimulating; but for the rest of us the rapid changes of style and mood, all couched in a general post modernist, semi-tonal framework, will be less entranced.

Matters improve greatly on Volume Five where Wengler's two pieces have real qualities. Die weisse Wildnis for baritone and orchestra is well sung by Louis Landuyt and, for once, the absence of a translation for the German text is not the end of the world. The poet, Walter Buchebner, died tragically young of cancer and his grief at the loss of opportunity and fulfilment is well caught in Wengler's dark orchestration and acute use of orchestral timbres.

Konstellationen (Constellations) is a twenty two minute tone poem which makes reference to actual astronomical constellations as well as incorporating the metaphysical concept of individual elements within a whole. Although this latter aspect is used by Wengler as an aid to creating this composition, there is none of the arid intellectuality which marred the Symphony. Indeed this is a fine, exciting and enjoyable piece of modern orchestral writing which can be thoroughly appreciated without reference to the subject matter.

It is Georges Lentz's own thirty seven minute astronomical work in seven movements 'Caeli errant….' 1, however, which proves to be the real find here. The first of a series of pieces of this name which Lentz (b. 1965) has regularly returned to since starting in 1989, it is based on the composer's interest in astronomy as well as religious belief - although not one particular theological system.

Lentz uses a myriad of styles from serial technique, through Tibetan Buddhist traditions to near jazz and western post modernism. 'Caeli errant'….1 is a remarkable tour de force, taking the listener through the timelessness of the universe (depicted using the arhythmical Tibetan tradition), incorporating short periods of silence which, as the composer well describes it, 'colour in the mind the sounds that have just preceded them'. There are also sequences of rapid and exciting music which have an 'edge of the seat' impact.

'The Spiral Galaxy' is perhaps the best movement of the seven, describing with an uncanny accuracy the circles and spirals which make up the huge edifice of a galaxy. Using every technique at his disposal, Lentz's music takes the listener on a fascinating musical journey. Flashes of Messiaen, Holst, even Star Wars make brief but telling impacts, but the majority of the material is Lentz's own, all underpinned by a solo cor anglais which acts as the listener's constant guide and friend.

This is wonderful music and it would make a fine piece to partner Holst's The Planets in a concert. Incidentally, Caeli errant….4 & 5 are available on the Australian label Tall Poppies, a CD which I will certainly seek out.

Heinen's post-Bartokian Violin Concerto will appeal to lovers of fine 'pure music' and Fritz's short movement for strings and percussion is entertaining throughout.

So, here are two CDs which should not be so obscure after all. They are well recorded in both analogue and digital sound (1980 - 1994). In particular it is well worth the effort to track down Volume 5 to experience yet another unexpected masterpiece from the far from dying classical music business.

Simon Foster

Performances

Sound

See also

More Wengler

ISCM World Music Days report: Interview with Wangler

ISCM World Music Days 2000 Festival Report

LGNM Luxembourg Society for Contemporary Music

Return to Index

Reviews from previous months


You can purchase CDs, tickets and musician's accessories and Save around 22% with these retailers:
BlackStar.co.uk - The UK's Biggest Video Store Concert and Show tickets
Ticketlinks
Musicians accessories
Click here to visit piedog.com