Petr EBEN (1929-2007)
Job (1987)
Olivier d’Ormesson (organ) and Hervé Lamy (chant)
rec. June 2008 and February 2009 (organ), l’église Saint-Antoine-des-Quinze-Vingts
de Paris and September 2008 and February 2009 (chant), l’église Saint-Pierre
de la Réole
PSALMUS PSAL006 [72:18]
Petr Eben’s biblical cycle for organ, Job, was written in 1987. His
other major work for the instrument was Faust (1976-1980). In the
concert version of this work Job necessitates the role of a narrator
who reads from the selected passages from the Book of Job between the eight
movements for organ. In this recording, however, which is ‘destined for transnational
diffusion’, to quote the remarkably high-flown translation (it’s not just
for the French), Gregorian chant has been preferred. Parts of the Office and
the Mass of Job were selected that were most proximate to the texts chosen
by Eben. It is thus that the work has been somewhat taken off its axis.
The organ is played by Olivier d’Ormesson, who was only 25 when the recording
was made. It is no ordinary organ. It’s the Cavaillé-Coll of Saint-Antoine-des-Quinze-Vingts
in Paris built by the great maker in 1894 and which was fully restored in
2004. The chants are declaimed by Hervé Lamy, whose sensitive and resonant
contributions were overlaid in September 2008 and February 2009.
Job is not a particularly easy listen. Much depends on the necessary
levels of concentration and contemplation required to allow the music to enter
one’s bloodstream. It’s questionable whether the Gregorian chant heightens
or dissipates the charge generated by Eben’s remarkably evocative organ writing
and whether the necessarily more generalised, thus less word-specific texts,
rob something essential from the symbiotic relationship between the instrument
and the reader of texts.
For me, the pleasures of hearing d’Ormesson’s playing, and on so fine an instrument,
tend to allay fears. The rich reed voicings he cultivates in Destiny,
which so viscerally italicise Job’s impending fate in the form of a toccata,
offer rich rewards. Eben’s variety of expression and form ensure that interest
is both kindled and maintained. The chorale in the Acceptance of Suffering
movement or the Passacaglia in Longing for Death are suffused with
the depth of Job’s predicaments, and in particular its incremental nature,
vividly depicted in that latter movement. It is not accidental that the longest
chant, the Offertorium Vir erat prefaces the most rancorous organ
episode in Despair and Resignation, where Job rails against, and
finally accepts, God’s Will.
Some may find Eben’s evocation of the Mystery too simplified and that the
mysterious chords and questioning flute voicings are perhaps inadequate responses.
I happen not to agree, not least when the music amplifies and expands in complexity
thereafter, and when the unifying sonority of the reeds reappear. Thus when
the chorale variations that end the work also appear, they do so after hard-won
victory, and the wonder, the elation and the certainty enshrined in the writing
achieves its genuinely spiritual effect. They stand at the very summit of
the journey from destiny through acceptance, despair, and abandonment through
mystery, penitence to, finally, reward.
The DSD recording is outstandingly good. Given the chants I am reluctant to
lavish general praise, but I was impressed by the concept and execution.
Jonathan Woolf
I was impressed by the concept and execution.
Support
us financially by purchasing this disc from: |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |