MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW Plain text for smartphones & printers


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

Support us financially by purchasing this from
Bechara EL-KHOURY (b. 1957)
Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 62, Aux frontières de nulle part (On the Borders of Nowhere) (1999–2002) [22:17]
Horn Concerto, Op. 74, The Dark Mountain (2007–2008) [25:15]
Clarinet Concerto, Op. 78, Autumn Pictures (2009–2010) [25:31]
Sarah Nemtanu (violin), David Guerrier (horn), Patrick Messina (clarinet)
Orchestre National de France/Kurt Masur (violin), Jean-Claude Casadesus (horn)
Orchestre de Chambre de Paris/Olari Elts (clarinet)
rec. live, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, 25 May 2006 (Violin), at the Salle Olivier Messiaen, Maison de la Radio, Radio France, Paris, Festival ‘Présences’, 18 September 2009 (Horn) and at Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, Festival ‘Les Paris de la Musique’, 10 November 2010 (Clarinet)
world première. live recordings
NAXOS 8.572773 [73:13]

It was only four years after Bechara El-Khoury moved from his native Beirut to study in Paris that he was the subject of a concert the like of which many a composer would envy. On 9 December 1983 the Orchestre Colonne under Pierre Dervaux gave world première performances of, the Symphonic Poem No. 1: Lebanon in Flames, the Requiem: For the Lebanese Martyrs in the War, the Symphonic Picture: The Gods of the Earth and the Symphonic Suite: Night and the Fool. Forlane then issued a 2CD set of his orchestral works as recorded by Dervaux. El-Khoury became a French citizen in 1987. On CD he has done pretty respectably. Quite apart from that Forlane double, a large part of which was accessibly reissued on Naxos, there have been other Naxos CDs: New York Tears and The Ruins of Beyrouth. We have not, as yet reviewed 8.557692 which includes the Piano Concerto, the Poème for piano and orchestra and the Méditation Poétique for violin and orchestra.
 
The present disc adds to the treasury of this composer's works with three 25 minute three-movement concertos dating from the 2000s. They were taken down at concerts and in all three cases benefit from committed performances. While I have a high tolerance level anyway I heard nothing to distract as a result of the presence of an audience. Applause is included in all three cases. The recording is dedicated to the memory of the composer's mother.
 
The Violin Concerto No. 1 is characteristically lyrical. Quite apart from its admitted allusions to the Berg concerto - a work more than respected by El-Khoury - this also reminded me a little of the more poetic sections of the Walton and Rozsa violin concertos. Although some may still shiver at reference to Berg the language is not at all difficult. There are some dramatic moments but this concerto has more to say about beauty than about derring-do. A similar poetic vortex ineluctably drives the gentle pulse of the Horn Concerto - a Radio France commission. The stabbing jagged opening of the Drammatico Energico finale - Herrmann's Psycho meets Beethoven 5 - provides contrast. Even this is lovingly overrun by the work's overwhelming proclivity for nostalgia. The Clarinet Concerto has movements simply entitled: Cantabile, Poetico and Energico - all facets of the instruments soul as laid bare by Finzi, Corigliano and Veale. The music mediates its way between film noir brooding and lyrical contemplation only offset by the occasionally rushing finale. There's a clever last page or two. It's difficult to end a work without resort to cliché but this one does it with a wink and a smile.
 
It is no surprise that all three concertos include movements whose titles make play with the words 'poetry' and 'mystery'. We hear some excitingly dynamic music structured around 'dramatic' and 'energetic' but reflective tendencies predominate. We are assured that the two latter concertos have associations with the natural world of his native Lebanon. Western listeners should not expect to hear anything crudely East Mediterranean - at least not in any stereotyped sense. El-Khoury's music looks inwards - he is not concerned with postcards.

The extremely useful booklet notes are by Gérald Hugon and are in English and French.
 
The music of Bechara El-Khoury is not about harsh modernity. If you have a taste for the composers I have mentioned in passing then you can be sure you will enjoy this. These concertos may well set you on a path towards the composer's other four Naxos discs.
 
Rob Barnett