This disc features
two French conductors, Gaston Poulet
(1892-1974) and Jane Evrard (1893-1984)
in a varied programme of French and
Spanish music recorded between 1938
and 1956.
Poulet initially became
a violinist and switched to conducting
after meeting Toscanini in the 1920s,
becoming director of the Bordeaux Conservatoire.
Jane Evrard (born Jeanne Chevalier)
also started with the violin and, in
1912, married Gaston Poulet. The marriage
did not last and they had separated
by the time she took up the baton in
1930, shortly afterwards forming the
"Orchestre féminin de Paris".
Quite how she became "Jane Evrard" is
unclear to me but success rapidly followed
and in 1934 they gave the first and
second performances of Roussel’s Sinfonietta
(the latter being an immediate encore!).
The performances documented
here all seem worthwhile. In particular,
I enjoyed the Albeniz, Dalayrac (a composer
best known for comic operas) and Roussel.
The recordings come from Manuel Poulet’s
private collection, except for the Couperin
and Dalayrac, which derive from recordings
that were presumably issued on 78s,
and the Roussel which comes from a radio
concert. The sound varies somewhat but
requires a fair degree of tolerance
throughout, especially in the Couperin
which suffers from considerable distortion.
The Roussel seems to have been recorded
"off air" and is introduced by an announcer.
The sound quality here is generally
better than elsewhere but another station
is intermittently audible in the background
and the ending is very abrupt. Generally
the gaps between tracks are short; too
much so when changes of composer are
involved.
Unfortunately the documentation
is not ideal and consists only of biographies
of the performers. Information on the
music is completely lacking including,
for example, who made the orchestral
arrangements of the Albeniz’s Iberia
and Dalayrac’s Quartet, and which Lully
Overture is being played.
In summary, this is
worth a hearing and will be an interesting
disc for historians of mid-20th
century France, but it is not for everyday
listening. I shall be looking around
for more modern recordings of some of
this repertoire.
Patrick C Waller
see also review
by Jonathan Woolf
MALIBRAN CDRG 182 [78:58]