Parisian-born composer
Jacques Ibert, a winner of the Prix
de Rome at the Paris Conservatoire,
was for a number of years director of
the French Academy in Rome and the Paris
Opéra Comique. Versatile and
prolific, he wrote six operas, seven
ballets and music for the theatre, cinema
and radio. In addition there is a dramatic
cantata, several orchestral and concertante
works, vocal, chamber music and instrumental
works, all equally beautifully crafted,
with particularly idiomatic handling
of wind instruments. Ibert is best known
for a handful of orchestral and chamber
works that have endured in the repertoire.
The works most likely to be encountered
are the Escales for orchestra
(1922), Divertissement, for chamber
orchestra (1928), the symphonic poem
La Ballade de la geôle de Reading
(1920) and the Flute concerto
(1934).
Music writer David
Ewen has stated that Ibert’s scores,
"usually combine classical forms
with bright colours, a poster paint
vivacity, sometimes unexpected harmonies
and a piquant imagination ..."
As a young man he wished to become an
actor and it is certain that he had
a fascination for drama in whatever
medium. His certain dramatic gift found
expression in colourful music, as evinced
by the number of works he wrote for
theatre, film, radio and opera.
Macbeth, suite
(1948)
Seven years after the
famous collaboration between director
Orson Wells and composer Bernard Herrmann
in the 1941 film Citizen Kane,
Ibert was asked to compose the music
to the film Macbeth. Shakespeare’s
tragic tale of the rise and fall of
ambitious 12th-century Scottish warrior
Macbeth proved irresistible to
Orson Welles and the movie was filmed
in only twenty-three days. The Suite
prepared from the film score is
in six movements and includes such features
as a breathing choir in the witches’
scenes, set against eerie parts for
piano, harp, celesta and percussion
with string harmonics. The orchestration
calls for piano, celesta, vibraphone,
harp and a large percussion battery,
including Millboard-bells, tabor and
Chinese gongs. The first four movements
all seem generally uninspiring but the
work springs into action in the penultimate
movement Death of Lady Macbeth which
is a blend of poignancy and excitement
with lots of brass, percussion and celesta.
The quality of the music improves greatly
as the work progresses and the final
movement the Triumph of Macduff’s
Armies is fast-moving with extensive
use of the march and an exciting conclusion
of blazing brass.
Golgotha, suite
(1935)
Golgotha from
1935 was film director Julien Duvivier’s
most controversial production. Golgotha
was an ambitious and expensive retelling
of the Last Days of Jesus Christ. Ibert
composed the demanding and dramatic
score in the busy year of his life,
having composed music for four films,
as well as his extended travelling and
activities as ‘concert’ composer and
conductor. Ibert’s sound-world in Golgotha
is varied and colourful, often adventurous
and thrilling. I particularly enjoyed
the movement Le Calvaire which
is notable for the extensive use of
the ondes martenot. The La Crucifixion
movement is ethereal and passionate.
Don Quichotte,
film score (1933)
The French/British
production of Don Quichotte from
1933 is a faithful rendition of the
Miguel de Cervantes novel, set in sixteenth
century Spain, with a poignant ending
added by director Georg Wilhelm Pabst.
This highly successful film was a showcase
for the vocal talents of Feodor Chaliapin
the world famous Russian opera singer.
The bass starred as Don Quichotte (Don
Quixote), the Knight of the Woeful Countenance.
The score is in essence a song-cycle
for bass and an orchestra that varies
from a five instrument ensemble in the
first song to full orchestra in the
other three. In addition, conductor
Adriano has orchestrated a piano score
of the song Chanson de Sancho.
The song, the score for which was discovered
whilst preparing this recording, was
intended for the actor Dorville who
was to play Sancho Panza in the film.
Adriano is a passionate
advocate of the music of Ibert. He works
exceptionally diligently with the players
of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
to offer performances that show the
music in the best possible light. Recorded
in 1989 and 1990 this release was previously
available on the Marco Polo label and
no doubt serious collectors of film
music scores welcome the disc’s availability
on Naxos at super-budget price. The
sound quality is adequate and the annotation
is pretty good too. Owing to the unexceptional
nature of the music I doubt that this
recording will feature very often, if
at all, on my CD player.
A disc that will appeal
to Ibert devotees and serious collectors
of film music.
Michael Cookson
see also review
by Jonathan Woolf
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)/Adriano
