Griffes died young
leaving behind him works of short duration
but luxurious impressionistic imagination.
Not for him the apparatus of 19th century
symphonies. Instead he looked to the
French exotic school. He can be seen
as a pathfinder for Americans of the
ilk of Loeffler, Farwell and Hill. Further
afield the comparators will include
Sam Hartley Braithwaite (a Brit awaiting
discovery), the Belgian Adolphe Biarent,
William Baines (who also died young
with many miniatures to his name but
also an early Symphony crying out for
a first recording), Zemlinsky and Schrecker
in Germany and the Breton, Paul Ladmirault.
Griffes was born in
New York City, studied in Berlin and
then in France where he became fascinated
by the music of Debussy and Ravel. This
shows throughout the present collection
although nothing is quite that
simple.
The Fiona McLeod song-cycle
is an example of where above an impressionistic
orchestral ‘wash’ the voice is given
a quasi-operatic potency. This is well
picked up by Ms Quintiliani who is good
at the dramatics as well as at word
articulation. In this regard she is
to be preferred to Phyllis Bryn-Julson
in a similar but not identical full
price New World collection. These three
songs remind me very strongly of Bantock
in his Sappho Fragments and of
Heather Harper in her glorious Chandos
recording of Hamilton Harty's Ode
to a Nightingale. The words are
printed in full - a very nice touch
from Naxos.
The Tone Pictures
make a few more concessions to popular
taste but otherwise inhabit the same
exotic (some might say effete) world
as The White Peacock. There is
an assertive role for the solo piano.
Each is fairly Baxian at least in Bax’s
Symphonic Variations and Spring
Fire phase - works contemporary
with Griffes’ orchestral flowering.
Other links can be made. Only recently
I heard Roger Smalley's devoted orchestrations
of ten piano poems by Scriabin. There
are parallels with Griffes there too.
Wincenc's flute style
leans towards the panpipes, breathy
and with vibrato. The music is cool,
often hooded and subdued in tone. This
is by no means a pretty-pretty sketch.
Rather the flute leads us through some
dark realms. True it dances in Hovhaness
mode (06.00) but there are threatening
auguries too. Listen to the grippingly
recorded shuddering of the double basses
at 5.10 - almost as dark as the rumblings
and portents in Sibelius's Lemminkainen
in Tuonela. The horn at 4.50 sounds
remarkably close to the horn in Britten's
Serenade. The Rimskian Bacchanale
is rather Russian and here Griffes
plays the languid Eros at 3.20. In the
delicate drift of Clouds the
celesta and flute have solo roles. These
two pieces and the luxuriant preening
of The White Peacock remind me
of William Baines’ orchestral poems:
Thoughtdrift and Island of
the Fey.
The touchstone of any
Griffes collection is always going to
be The Pleasure Dome. Most of
us were introduced to it by Charles
Gerhardt's National Philharmonic Reader's
Digest recording. This is now on Chesky
and is still well worth hearing. As
with everything else in this collection
the version from Buffalo cuts no corners
and is suitably voluptuous and diaphanous.
The Buffalo Phil maintrain high standards
asserted by their Nonesuch recording
of the Lemminkainen Legends (Lukas
Foss) and the MTT/Sony/CBS collection
of Gershwin overtures. There is no suggestion
here of cut-down standards or humdrum
session filling. The great slow swaying
theme at 2.35 goes well although it
does sound very slow with Falletta.
Mic array placement brings the cello
solo at 6.33 closer to us than ever
before. The minatory brass could have
benefited for a little more distance.
In this respect the Ozawa version on
New World and the superb analogue recording
by Gerhardt are to be preferred. However
it's a fine judgement and the Buffalo/Falletta
version is never less than excellent
in its own right.
A very strong contender
at this or any price. There is no reason
for paying for Ozawa’s full priced New
World version … but if you chanced on
the Gerhardt snap it up to supplement
the Buffalo collection.
Rob Barnett
Barbara Quintiliani (sop) * 