Jean FRANÇAIX (1912-1997)
Musique pour le plaisir
Divertissement for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (1947) [10:11]
Quatuor for cor anglais, violin, viola and cello (1970) [14:55]
Sixtuor for flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon and horn (1991) [18:36]
Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano (1994) [16:12]
Karolina Stalmachowska (oboe, cor anglais) & others
rec. 2017-2020, Chamber Hall of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Katowice, Poland
DUX 1808 [59:59]
This disc has two subtitles, “Music for Pleasure” and “Karolina Stalmachowska and friends”. There are 11 of her musical friends involved in these four chamber works by Jean Françaix, each work recorded on its own over a period of four years. With the exception of bassoonist Krzysztof Fiedukiewicz, who plays in both the Divertissement and the Trio, the only player to appear in more than one work is Stalmachowska herself. This is clearly very much her project; she has devised the programme, written the booklet notes, and brought together the musicians involved. This is a wholly delightful and utterly enjoyable CD. Stalmachowska is Principal Oboe and soloist with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and a graduate of the Karol Szymanowski Music Academy in Katowice. She is also a member of the LutosAir Quintet which comprises various wind principals from the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, which makes it perhaps a shade surprising that they figure in just one work here, the Sixtuor. Nevertheless a sense of mutual friendship and collective enjoyment in music-making permeates all four performances here and that, coupled with the innate and irresistible charms of Françaix’s music, makes this a most entertaining disc.
In her note, Stalmachowska describes Françaix as “one of the finest French composers of the 20th century”, which is possibly something of an exaggeration. Unquestionably, though, his music is among the most attractive and openly accessible of all late-20th century French composers, and he was very much in his element when writing for wind instruments. As the notes go on to tell us, “the composer’s stated goal throughout his musical career was to give pleasure and joy to listeners of his music”. He certainly was able to do that, but to do that most effectively, his music needs performers who are totally sympathetic to that goal, and who, indeed, share it themselves. These dozen Polish musicians certainly do that, and come up with four delightful performances.
The four wind chamber works here are presented in chronological order, starting with the Divertissement for oboe, clarinet and bassoon. Composed in 1947 for the clarinettist André Dupont and his wind trio, the Divertissement opens with an urbane first movement which at one point takes flight in a passage of almost manic rhythmic complexity before going back to the urbane opening as if nothing has happened to disturb the even tenor of the movement. The second movement is a jaunty dance with the clarinet and oboe doing everything in their power to trip up the poor bassoon. The third movement gives Stalmachowska a golden opportunity to show off her excellent breath control in a gently flowing, sinuous, and virtually unbroken melodic line above a gently swinging accompaniment from the bassoon and clarinet. The last movement is a jokey scherzo with the three instruments out-vying each other in rhythmic twists and turns, culminating in a delightfully throwaway ending.
The only other quartet involving cor anglais and strings I can call to mind was composed in 1956 by the Australian composer Margaret Sutherland. But while this instrumental combination has not found favour with composers, Françaix makes it sound completely natural with a gloriously bubbly opening theme, showing the cor anglais in an unusually fresh-faced light – a world away from the soulful and melancholy solos of Dvořák and his New World or Rodrigo and his Concierto de Aranjuez. Stalmachowska is nimble-footed in this jovial 1920s-style melody, which seems destined to linger in the memory after just one hearing. We hear the instrument in a more lyrical guise for the second movement, but this Andante tranquillo is more in the manner of a deeply happy and contended song than the kind of yearning for lost times which is what so often we expect from the cor anglais. What we never expect from the cor anglais is the biting satire and pointed athleticism of the jazz-infused third movement. An Andantino fourth movement presents a hymn-like melody from the cor anglais closely related to the main theme of the opening movement, which is echoed line-by-line by the string trio with some opulent harmonies, while the fifth movement brings this most enjoyable and rewarding of quartets to a breathlessly witty conclusion – and if one might be tempted to think of chugging steam trains while this music is playing, I’m sure the composer would not have any cause to object.
Sixtuor was written for the Schleswig-Holstein festival of 1991. Françaix was anxious that it was not to be considered his swan-song. Any thoughts of an elderly man about to hang up his composer’s pen for good are rudely swept aside by the almost comic antics of the first movement, in which flute and oboe seem to vie with each other about who can get up the highest. Françaix’s ear for instrumental colour is nowhere more vividly revealed than in the long melodic line given to the bass clarinet in its upper register in the middle section of this movement. The second movement is a gentle, rocking lullaby, while the third is another typically witty and impish scherzo with some gloriously unrestrained whoops from the horn. It is the flute which dominates at the start of the somewhat elusive fourth movement; neither melancholic nor reflective, it is nevertheless an unusually restrained movement for Françaix. All thoughts of restraint are blown away in the boisterously tuneful finale which features a jaunty six-note theme which goes with plenty of chattering away across the sextet.
Françaix was well into his 80s when he set to work on the latest piece here, but by no means his final chamber work. He dedicated the Trio to the British bassoonist William Waterhouse. A gentle opening is quickly brushed aside by an exuberant dance in which jerky rhythms from the piano are balanced by fragmentary melodic phrases from oboe and bassoon, and as it progresses, so the piano writing becomes ever more agitated and daring. The second movement seems to carry on where the first left off, getting busier and busier as the music progresses, the piano barely relaxing its manic momentum until the very Poulencian end. Calm eventually arrives in the shape of some bluesy piano chords and a song-like bassoon theme (which bears a similarity to the old nursery rhyme “Rock-a-bye baby”) which is taken up in a gentle counterpoint by the oboe. The Finale is a cheeky, jaunty cake-walk which rounds off this entirely pleasurable work.
Clearly Karolina Stalmachowska and her musical friends were having enormous fun when they recorded these delightful pieces, and it is that sense of fun and pure enjoyment which permeates the entire disc. A few tiny intonation issues from the LutosAir Quintet and a slightly roomy feel to the recording are the only tiny flaws in this wholly pleasurable disc.
Marc Rochester
Other performers
Bartosz Pacan (clarinet), Krzysztof Fiedukiewicz (bassoon)
Małgorzata Wasiucionek (violin), Maria Shetty (viola), Konrad Bargieł (cello), Tomasz Żymła (bass clarinet), Dagmara Niedziela (piano)
LutosAir Quintet
