Jean Fournet (b.1913), a Rouennais,
studied flute with Gaubert and began
his conducting career with French Radio
and then with the Paris Opera. Latterly
he conducted for Netherlands Radio and
made many discs (sadly out of common
circulation) for the Japanese company,
Denon.
The present recordings
were part of a series he made with the
Czech Phil during the 1960s. Others
included Franck’s Psyché,
Les Eolides, Les Djinns,
Rédemption and Le Chasseur
Maudit. Beyond the Czech connection
(which he shared with Baudo and Pedrotti)
he recorded extensively including rarer
items such as Inghelbrecht’s Requiem
with the ORTF orchestra. Some of you
may know him from the Decca Phase Four
LPs he made of Debussy’s Ibéria,
Nocturnes and Faune while
heading the Netherlands Radio Orchestra.
Further back in time he worked with
Philips recording Louise, Pelléas
et Mélisande and Pêcheurs
de Perles.
Fournet’s Debussy is
alluring and is recorded with downright
honesty and immediacy. Working with
a top-flight orchestra resistant to
homogenising influences from the West
his attention to detailing, balanced
with warmth, mystery and a feeling for
movement is outstanding. Listen to the
squeal-howl of the woodwind at 1:34
in the third section of Ibéria.
His approach reminded me of Monteux
in one of his most successful recordings:
Tchaikovsky’s Fifth with the LSO in
Vienna (Vanguard). A whip-crack taut
La Mer is matched with glowingly
silken tone from the strings of the
premier Czech orchestra. In Nuages
he liberates us from the slough
of miasmic meandering that beckons with
Debussy’s scores. He would probably
have made a fine Bax conductor if only
he had taken an interest in that direction;
Bax’s scores tempt the rhapsodically-inclined
into a similarly doomed mire. Fêtes
is both snappily volatile and prone
to languid abandon. The close recording
applied by Eduard Herzog and Miloslav
Kulhan works wonderfully well: listen
to the sharply accented harp at 0.49
in Fêtes. Fournet superbly
balances those ‘lointain’ fanfares in
all their delicacy and a determination.
Similar poise between woodwind and female
chorus can be heard at the start of
Sirènes. Things become
bogged down a little in Les parfums
de la nuit where Fournet loses that
usually sure grip the motion of a luxurious
canvas.
No serious Debussian should be without
this. These unaffected Fournet recordings
offer enchantment-in-waiting. If the
Ibéria shows a slackening of
grip, the other two works are essential
listening for dedicated Debussians and
first-timers unobsessed by the latest
sound could do a great deal worse than
meet Debussy for the first time through
the Fournet of the Czech years.
Rob Barnett
Czech Philharmonic Chorus/Josef Veselka 