Igor STRAVINSKY (1882-1971)
Le Sacre du Printemps (1913) [38:21]
Francis POULENC (1899-1963)
Les Biches* (1924) [32:45]
BBC National Chorus of Wales*
BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Thierry Fischer
rec. live, 19 June 2009, St. David’s Hall, Cardiff. DDD
SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD205 [67:48]
Thierry Fischer and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales have already released
recordings on the Signum Classics labels of Firebird (SIGCD165) and
Petrushka (SIGCD195). I’ve not heard those discs but if they’re
up to the same standard as this, the final instalment of Stravinsky’s
‘Diaghilev troika’, they will be pretty good.
The BBC NOW gives a very good account of itself inLe Sacre.
The playing is precise - as is emphasised by a very good and clear recording.
For example, the rhythms are crisp in ‘Dances of the Young Girls’
and ‘Dance of the Earth’ is tremendously incisive. There’s
great power in ‘Spring Rounds’ while the brutal, propulsive rhythms
of ‘Glorification of the Chosen One’ generate considerable excitement.
The ‘Sacrificial Dance: The Chosen One’ is suitably explosive.
There’s a good deal of subtlety to admire in this performance also.
The subdued and fascinating textures of the Introduction to Part II are expertly
balanced by Thierry Fischer and his players and they’re just as successful
in ‘Mystic Circles of the Young Girls’ which follows. This is,
in fact, a successful all-round performance of Le Sacre and most certainly
not one that’s merely fuelled on testosterone. The colour, bite, drama
and savagery of Stravinsky’s ground-breaking score are all very well
realised and so is the fantasy. It must be a huge challenge adequately to
convey the sound of this complex and often tumultuous score, which requires
a vast orchestra. It must be still more challenging to convey the myriad detail
of the often-teeming orchestration without recourse to egregious spotlighting
of individual instruments or sections. It seems to me that engineer Mike Hatch
has done an excellent job in presenting a convincing and musically satisfying
representation of the performance.
On the face of it Les Biches and Le Sacre are poles apart and
it may seem incongruous to pair them on a CD, let alone in concert as Thierry
Fischer did in June 2009, when I suspect the two works were heard in the reverse
order to that on this disc. Actually, there are some common threads. The most
obvious is that both ballets were composed for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.
In his booklet note, entitled ‘The Rites of Women’ Daniel Jaffé
suggests another one, namely that “both focus on the role of women in
the rituals of sex and sexual attraction.” You may or may not agree
with that thesis but the beauty of a CD is that you don’t have to listen
to both works in conjunction. What I can assure collectors, however, is that
another common thread - and, for our purposes perhaps the most important one
- is that Fischer and his musicians turn in very good performances of both
works.
An important plus for this disc is that Fischer plays the full ballet score
of nine movements rather than the five-movement orchestral suite that Poulenc
subsequently fashioned and which is more usually heard in the concert hall
and on disc. This explains the involvement of the BBC National Chorus of Wales
for three of the movements feature a choir - male voices only are heard in
the often lusty third section while the fifth and eighth movements call for
SATB chorus. To be honest, I don’t think these choral movements are
the strongest music in the ballet - turn to the more familiar numbers for
that - but it’s both valuable and interesting to hear the full score
and the BBC National Chorus of Wales makes a fine contribution. We are told
in the notes that Poulenc set “some 17th-century texts”.
I don’t know what these were and Signum provide neither texts nor translations.
My suspicion, however, is that this is one of those occasions where the text
is relatively unimportant and, possibly, inconsequential.
The familiar orchestral movements contain some delicious music and the present
performance is a spirited one. The sophisticated ‘Rondeau’ is
done well and the infectiously gay sections of the ‘Rag-Mazurka’
are invigoratingly delivered. The ‘Andantino’ is delightful while
the vivacious ‘Final’ has plenty of bounce and life. Poulenc’s
score is a wonderful example of French ’chic’; it may not be the
deepest thing that came from his pen but it certainly falls into the ‘naughty
but nice’ category. I thoroughly enjoyed this performance.
There is applause at the end of each work - vociferous in the case of the
Stravinsky - but otherwise I was not aware of any distracting audience noise.
This disc demonstrates imaginative programme planning. The BBC orchestra is
on fine form under the baton of a conductor who is, seemingly, thoroughly
at home in both of these very different scores. All in all, this disc is an
attractive proposition.
John Quinn
Masterwork Index: Le
Sacre du Printemps
Two very different Diaghilev ballets in excellent performances.