Jacques IBERT (1890-1962)
Deux mouvements, for flute, oboe, clarinet & bassoon (1922) [7:10]
Trio for violin, cello & harp (1944/45) [15:34]
Trois pièces brèves, for wind quintet (1930) [6:07]
Deux Interludes, for flute, violin & harp (1949) [7:10]
Cinq pièces en trio, for oboe, clarinet & bassoon (1935) [7:54]
Capriccio pour dix instruments (1938) [11:09]
Ensemble arabesques/Philipp Pointner
rec. June 2018 Kulturforum Planegg, Munich, Germany
FARAO CLASSICS B108105 [56:32]
The German label Farao Classics clearly exercises great care over its releases, adopting an approach of quality over quantity. Prior to Ensemble arabesques’ new album of Jacques Ibert’s chamber music, in the last few years I’ve reviewed a pair of chamber music releases by this group which have stood out: the 2017 Gustav Holst album of five works featuring the Quintet for piano and winds and the Sextet for woodwind and strings, and in 2019 the Poulenc album comprising of five works including the Sextet for piano and winds, and the Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano.
Ensemble arabesques is based in Hamburg. It doesn’t have a long performing tradition being founded as recently as 2011 after playing in the German-French ‘Arabesques’ Cultural Festival in Northern Germany. Now it does not restrict its playing to music festivals and has broadened its scope. For this album, it has turned its attention to the music of Ibert with a collection of six chamber works.
Parisian-born-and-bred in the Belle Époque era, Ibert still seems to be a composer known more by reputation than actual performances of his compositions. Only rarely do I encounter his works on the radio and almost never in live concert - and if I do it tends to be his Escales (Ports of Call) and Divertissement, frequently the 1959 RCA Victor release from the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler. Another work heard occasionally and recorded a number of times is the Flute Concerto, the pick of his four concertante scores that soloist Emmanuel Pahud recorded with distinction in 2002 on EMI (now on Warner Classics). A popular work in the woodwind repertoire is the Trois pièces brèves; after that, I recall hearing nothing else by the composer.
Ibert’s list of works is quite broad and includes film scores (in excess of sixty, according to his granddaughter in the booklet notes), seven operas, five ballets and much incidental music to drama productions. Today, he is probably best known for two of his orchestral works, as noted above. Excluding solo piano pieces, Ibert wrote a body of some twenty chamber works. He clearly relished writing for wind, either solo or in combination, especially woodwind and here are five of the works that include or comprise of wind instruments. In addition, the harp, not a common stringed instrument in chamber music, has a significant part in three of the compositions. This is certainly an entertaining collection of works which don’t plumb great emotional depths, but are well written and easily accessible.
The earliest piece on the album is the Deux mouvements for woodwind quartet from 1921, when Ibert was in his early thirties. Dedicated to the Modern Society of Wind instruments, it has two slightly different versions, scored for two flutes or flute and oboe, clarinet and bassoon. Here Ensemble Arabesques plays the version with four different woodwind instruments. This is a most endearing, if rather short, score; the opening movement Allant reminds me at times of a light-hearted film score while the shorter movement Assez vif et rythmé has a humorous character, becoming increasingly madcap.
In 1930, Maurice Constantin-Weyer prepared for Paris a French version of the five-act comedy The Beaux’s Stratagem by George Farquhar now titled Le Stratagème des roués, for which Ibert wrote the incidental music for a wind quintet consisting of flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon, scored to suit the limited area available in a theatre. Soon after he chose three pieces from the incidental music to form the Trois pièces brèves which premiered at the Théâtre de l’Atelier, Paris. It remains a popular work for amateur and professional players alike. Delightful and light-hearted, the first movement Allegro borders on the impudent. There is a sadness as if from parting to the central Andante while the finale marked Assez lent - Allegro scherzando feels uplifting, rather comedic with an almost childlike quality.
Ibert wrote his Cinq Pièces en Trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon, a combination sometimes known as a ‘reed trio’, in 1935. It is dedicated to bassoonist Fernand Oubradous and the Paris Reed Trio. It is a short work in five movements with an Andante and an Andantino positioned between three Allegro movements. It displays a light, good-natured temperament overall with the standout movement, a congenial and unthreatening Andantino, giving the impression of sitting while watching the world go by.
The centrepiece of all Ibert’s works on the album is the Capriccio pour dix instruments, scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, harp, two violins, viola and cello from 1936-38. Consisting of ten instruments, this is a work that
lies somewhere between a chamber score and one for small orchestra. It is
rhythmic with contemporary harmonies that switch fluidly between shifting emotions and varying ideas. Ibert said of it that ‘each of the instruments in the score is almost always treated in the concertante style’ and here, Ensemble arabesques conducted by Philipp Pointner excels, savouring the challenge, providing pleasing tone colour and admirable intonation.
Ibert wrote his Trio for violin, cello and harp in 1944/45 for his harpist daughter Jacqueline. It is an illustration of how Ibert attains a broad range of sound from just three string instruments and what I admire about it is Ibert’s exquisite writing, that opens with an Allegro tranquillo movement which feels agreeable and unthreatening - although there is a slight melancholy to the central section. Next, a relaxed and warmly reflective Andante sostenuto is followed by a closing Scherzo, which has a joyous feeling that the players keep in check.
The most recent work on the album is from 1949, when Ibert was aged around sixty: the Deux Interludes played here in the version scored for the relatively rare combination of flute, violin and harp. It seems likely that Ibert was inspired by Debussy’s Sonata for flute, viola and harp from 1915. The Deux Interludes started life as incidental music to Suzanne Lilar’s play Le Burlador (The Seducer) the Don Juan tale told from a feminist perspective. The first Interlude Andante espressivo is an elegant minuet with a warm, tender, Romantic feeling to the writing. Marked Allegro vivo, the second Interlude is successfully infused with the essence of the Andalusian flamenco.
Recording under studio conditions at the Kulturforum Planegg, Munich, the engineering team has achieved first class sound quality. The author of the brief booklet notes, the composer’s granddaughter Véronique Ibert Péréal, mentions every work but says very little about each of them, which is a real shame. Undoubtedly more information is essential for a release containing lesser-known repertoire. At under an hour, the album could easily have accommodated another work or two.
These performances from Ensemble arabesques do full justice to this collection of Ibert’s chamber works. Creating a vivid palette of tone colour with flawless intonation and a satisfying overall balance, Ensemble arabesques meet the challenges of these chamber works handsomely.
Michael Cookson
