Vincent d'INDY (1851-1931)
Symphony No.2 in B flat major Op.57 (1902-03) [42:06]
Souvenirs - Poème symphonique Op.62 (1906) [19:32]
Istar - Variations symphoniques Op.42 (1896) [13:31]
Fervaal - Prelude to Act I (1889-95) [4:54]
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Jean-Luc Tingaud
rec. Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow, Scotland, July 28-30, 2015
NAXOS 8.573522 [80:03]
Under their previous Music Director Stéphane Denève, the Royal
Scottish National Orchestra made a highly successful series of recordings
of Roussel for Naxos, so I was interested to see how the orchestra approached
a disc of d’Indy. I see from conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud that there are
plans to record another Naxos disc of Cesar Franck with the orchestra but
it does not look likely that the current disc will be anything except an isolated
sampling of this composer's music.
Vincent d’Indy's music is reasonably well represented on disc.
Greatly helped in recent years by a six volume survey on Chandos - none of
which I have heard but the reviews I have read seem very positive. Elsewhere
labels such as Timpani, Erato and Marco Polo have produced discs. My introduction
to much of this music was via versions on French EMI with conductors such
as Pierre Dervaux and Michel Plasson. Those versions still sound well and
certainly idiomatic although no-one would have ever said the sound was of
demonstration quality and they are all around the thirty to forty year-old
mark. d’Indy’s least-unknown work - best known let alone ‘famous’
seems something of an exaggeration in the UK at least - is the Symphony
on a French Mountaineer's Song which is not represented on this
new disc. The last time this ‘popular’ symphony featured at the
Proms was 1951 and the last time any d’Indy was heard there was 1982.
But for someone looking for a one-disc sampler of his other orchestral music,
this is as good a place to start as many. The programme offered gives a good
idea of the range and style of his work. d’Indy’s dates pretty
much tell the whole story; the Symphony No.2 is a large and often dense work
that shows his debt to his teacher Cesar Franck. At the other end of the ‘influence’
spectrum are the more impressionistic Jour d'été à la montagne
Op.61 [not recorded here] with a strong dose of Wagner along the way
too - as in the Prelude to his opera Fervaal which completes the
programme.
Part of what fascinates me about d’Indy is the way in which, along with
these influences, he changes the musical coat he wears too. The innocent ear
would be hard-pressed to identify these works as all by the same composer.
The disc opens with the impressive Symphony No.2 in B flat major Op.57. Although
written in 1902-03 it is backward looking in spirit. The harmony has an ambiguity
that points to the early 20th century but the form and feel of the work are
of an earlier age. As well as the Franck Symphony the single works by Chausson
and Dukas are fellow travellers - indeed the work is dedicated to the latter.
However, unlike any of those three other composers d’Indy writes a symphony
in the traditional four movements; however the use of recurring motifs does
emulate the compositional processes of his teacher in particular. Dominic
Wells in his useful liner, points to the integration of an eclectic range
of influences from Gregorian chant to French folk-song alongside Wagner. Given
the light and colour that d’Indy creates in other works, the Symphony
feels relatively dense and opaque. In that way it is more of a challenge for
orchestra, conductor and engineers than many a more obviously ‘brilliant’
score. Often d’Indy will double instrumental lines, so there are immediately
questions of balance that need to be addressed from the podium and/or the
control room. Generally this new disc is very good at finding a sane and sensible
middle path. The very familiar acoustic of the Henry Wood Hall in Glasgow
supports the orchestral sound well and Phil Rowlands’ engineering reveals
the RSNO in good form both collectively and as soloists. My direct comparison
for the symphony is the afore-mentioned Michel Plasson with his long-time
collaborators Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse. The French EMI engineers
never quite tamed the Halle-aux-Grains in Toulouse, and the recordings nearly
always have a rather wallowing diffuseness. Certainly the RSNO of 2015 sound
a more refined and sophisticated group than their French counterparts from
1981. Not only on this disc, the woodwind principals in Scotland play extremely
beautifully. Yet curiously this added refinement and faultless blending of
tone has a strangely emulsifying effect on d’Indy’s orchestration.
On the French recording the re-combination and doubling of instruments can
be heard and separate entities playing together, the Scottish players blend
to the point of producing a resultant sound which to my ear lacks the character
the French orchestra achieves. Hard not to feel that back in the early 80's
the Toulouse orchestra still retained the unmistakeable French sound which
I rather like. d’Indy uses a fairly large orchestra: triple wind with
piccolo, bass clarinet and cor anglais. Three bassoons - no contra - but unusually
a piccolo trumpet above two standard B flat and a contra-bass trombone rather
than a tuba - I wonder if the latter was used here? Two harps and a modest
percussion section complete the line-up alongside the usual string complement.
Tingaud steers an eminently sane and reliable path through the symphony without
ever really making it catch fire, although that might be the fault of the
work. The closing ‘Introduction, Fugue and Finale’ is well-handled
although the very title hints at something rather formal and academic. Again
I find the contrast between this and d’Indy’s other more expressive
scores fascinatingly marked. Lovely solo playing though from the orchestra
and the dynamism of the closing pages are well caught and detailed in Phil
Rowlands’ production and engineering. The next work immediately impresses
me more - the symphonic poem Souvenirs of 1906 was written in memory
of d’Indy’s wife Isabelle who died in that year of a brain haemorrhage.
The orchestra used is identical except for the piccolo trumpet becoming a
'standard' 3rd B flat trumpet. According to the liner d’Indy
charts Isabelle's life as a day from sombre dawn to a brilliant high-noon
climax, through elegiac dusk to the chimes of midnight which was literally
the hour of her death. The intensity and emotion of the music is never in
doubt and easily transcends the intellectual rigour the symphony displays.
Other versions I know come coupled with the 3rd Symphony on Auvidis Valois
from Theodor Guschlbauer in Strasbourg and an old Marco Polo disc from the
Wurttemberg PO. The Strasbourg performance is good, Wurttemberg is almost
identical in timings to this new album and features some expressive playing
but again the strong impression remains that the Scottish orchestra are the
most refined. Even though it is just four years later d’Indy's
orchestration is more translucenthere. The sombre opening is very impressive,
as is the noon-dance that follows, with the big climax well caught by the
engineering. Running to nearly nineteen minutes this is the longest single
arc of music on the disc and it is an impressively engaging work.
The Istar - variations symphoniques that follow are another example
of the composer's orchestral virtuosity. The title comes from an episode
in the Assyrian epic poem Izdubar. In this the Goddess Istar must
release her lover held captive in the Underworld. To reach him she must pass
through seven doors and at each door she must remove a garment of clothing
until she passes the final door and is revealed naked. d’Indy’s
musical solution to this story is a series of variations where the theme represents
each door and they move from complex – ‘fully clothed’ ̶
to simplest representing the naked Goddess. Again I am fascinated by how the
identical scoring - although a tuba is indicated here instead of
a 4th trombone - is made to sound so different. Here is d’Indy the orchestral
virtuoso with a skilful fusion of near impressionistic textures and the seamless
integration of variation form. There is a lovely sensuous and languorous violin
solo. I do wonder if Tingaud could inject even more impetuosity into the work.
The upside is that the sectional transitions are well achieved but at the
price of some of the voluptuous glamour the work surely contains. The quality
of the playing and engineering again shines through in the complex textures
of the big climaxes but the final degree of ecstatic release is lost. It has
to be said, however, that the well-respected Dervaux on EMI is even more staid
– his is a rather squarely virtuous Goddess. This is an impressively
compact score rich in detail and incident and one that thoroughly deserves
more concert outings than I suspect it gets.
Completing the set of influences, it is important to remember that d’Indy
was in the audience for the first ever performance of the Ring at Bayreuth.
If by 1896 and Istar much in the way of overt Wagnerisms had been
absorbed into a more personal idiom, it is easy to forgive the more overt
tribute that is the Prelude to Act I of his opera Fervaal from some
seven years earlier. There is a dynamic Prologue to the opera which precedes
the music given here. The plot involves descendants of the Celtic Gods loving
Saracen Princesses, all the while exploiting a Wagnerian system of motifs
and leading themes. From the very opening rising theme over a gentle horn
motif - lovely violin and flute again - the older composer’s influence
is clear - this is Forest Murmurs territory. But again it a rather
beautiful, compact and impressive work - from the score of the opera on IMSLP
it is clear that a concert ending of the final 30 seconds or so has been tacked
onto the work. After some of the opulence of the other works on the disc it
is a rather effective and neat end to close with this essentially gentle reverie
written for a reduced but very effective orchestra. Gilles Nopre in Wurttemberg
takes an extra thirty seconds or so - the langour very effectively and better
projected with the near-final Tristan-esque stab registering more effectively
than Tingaud's rather reticent gentle bump - beautiful though it is.
Dominic Wells’ fairly brief but informative liner - in French and English
only - allied to the fine playing and engineering completes an attractive
package. Worth commending Naxos too for the exceptionally generous playing
time of just over eighty minutes - from memory the first time they have breached
this mark. As I stated at the beginning of the review, this disc presents
the listener with a valuable and interesting overview of d’Indy's
varied and impressive output. Perhaps Tingaud is a fraction more cautious
than this music can take and benefit from. Lovely music that deserves to be
more widely known.
Nick Barnard
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