Neglected 20th Century French composers

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  • ferneyhoughgeliebte
    Gone fishin'
    • Sep 2011
    • 30163

    #16
    Betsy Jolas

    ... was featured at the 1996 Huddersfield Festival (the last year in which Stockhausen attended), I attended a concert of her works given by students from the University of York. Sadly, I then found her Music rather under-powered and I can remember little of it. (There's a new CD of her work reviewed by Arnold Whittall in the current Tempo, which suggests that it might reward further investigation, and there are other discs already available.)

    That year I was rather overwhelmed by the Stockhausen events (as I'd expected to be) and by my first encounter with the ELISION ensemble, playing, amongst other things, a set of pieces called Negatives. I forget the composer, but I remember being glad that I'd dared the blizzards on the Pennines (the snow falling so thick that there was only a four-inch square clear on my windscreen by the time I reached Denholme).

    Sorry - gone off-topic. Time to get back to Martinet.
    [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

    Comment

    • Serial_Apologist
      Full Member
      • Dec 2010
      • 37613

      #17
      Most grateful for the pointers, Richard.

      Maurice Emmanuel's 20-minute first symphony of 1919, a most enjoyable listen btw, is available on the 2 links below:

      Maurice Emmanuel (1862-1938) (France)Symphonie n°1 (1919) 1/2Dir : Leif Segerstam1- Tranquillo molto (8.38)...PART II : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdqRht...


      Maurice Emmanuel (1862-1938) (France) Symphonie n°1 (1919) 2/2Dir : Leif Segerstam...2- Adagio molto (5.07)3- Allegro con fuoco (7.32)PART I : http://www.yo...


      Eloy's "Equivalences":

      Born in the town of Mont-Saint-Aignan, a suburb of the capital of Haute-Normandie région, Rouen, Jean-Claude Éloy studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, wher...


      and "Gaku-No-Michi":

      PLEASE SUPPORT THE ARTIST. If you're interested in this music, buy the cds. music piracy is hurting the artist who created the cds. Check out this site to re...


      ...which I am very much looking forward to listening to in its entirely later this evening, when I'll check up on some Guezec links.

      Comment

      • Beef Oven

        #18
        This is a great thread S_A Cheers!

        Comment

        • teamsaint
          Full Member
          • Nov 2010
          • 25195

          #19
          Originally posted by Beef Oven View Post
          This is a great thread S_A Cheers!
          #

          it no doubt is.
          he has promised to do a 45 minutes beginners class with 2 works recommended every week.
          (not suggesting you need to be in that class, Beefy, you will no doubt be in the "Remove" or somewhere higher.)
          I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

          I am not a number, I am a free man.

          Comment

          • Serial_Apologist
            Full Member
            • Dec 2010
            • 37613

            #20
            Originally posted by Beef Oven View Post
            This is a great thread S_A Cheers!
            Wot, all this FRENCH music???

            Guezek's "Textures Enchainees" is on the following clip. Varese is definitely there in this music; I'm reminded of Birtwistle as well.

            Composed in 1967 for an ensemble of 16 musicians, This music is a wonderful inventiveness for its time and and crosses the inheritance at the same time of ...


            Terrific stuff, and not at all difficult to follow.
            Last edited by Serial_Apologist; 03-06-13, 21:29.

            Comment

            • Nick Armstrong
              Host
              • Nov 2010
              • 26523

              #21
              Originally posted by Beef Oven View Post
              This is a great thread S_A Cheers!
              It certainly is

              And well timed... Inspired by another thread, at the end of last week I acquired the RNSO/Denève box of complete Roussel symphonies plus other orchestral goodies:

              Conveniently buy, stream or download at Naxos anytime. Add 8.504017 from Naxos to your classical music collection today.


              I've listened several times to No 1 - engaging enough, I can hear a bit of César Franck in there which isn't ideal as far as I'm concerned... but if anything, the other pieces are more interesting... and especially an undiscovered gem, the 'Final Scene' from his incidental music to
              "Le marchand de sable qui passe", Op. 13 - a delightful French bonbon, up there with Fauré's "Pavane" in attractiveness without the overexposure. Just the sort of thing I'd been hoping to find.

              I've moved on to Symphony No 2 now - quite a dark piece. This disc is a rather better recording than No 1 which I found a little hard-edged in louder passages - No 2 is richer.

              Looking forward to this little French voyage of discovery...
              "...the isle is full of noises,
              Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
              Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
              Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

              Comment

              • Beef Oven

                #22
                Originally posted by Caliban View Post
                It certainly is

                And well timed... Inspired by another thread, at the end of last week I acquired the RNSO/Denève box of complete Roussel symphonies plus other orchestral goodies:

                Conveniently buy, stream or download at Naxos anytime. Add 8.504017 from Naxos to your classical music collection today.


                I've listened several times to No 1 - engaging enough, I can hear a bit of César Franck in there which isn't ideal as far as I'm concerned... but if anything, the other pieces are more interesting... and especially an undiscovered gem, the 'Final Scene' from his incidental music to
                "Le marchand de sable qui passe", Op. 13 - a delightful French bonbon, up there with Fauré's "Pavane" in attractiveness without the overexposure. Just the sort of thing I'd been hoping to find.

                I've moved on to Symphony No 2 now - quite a dark piece. This disc is a rather better recording than No 1 which I found a little hard-edged in louder passages - No 2 is richer.

                Looking forward to this little French voyage of discovery...
                #2 is fantasmagorical!!!!!!!!!

                I think I had the Baudo on vinyl back in the day

                Edit: It was probably Dutoit on LP
                Last edited by Guest; 04-06-13, 20:18.

                Comment

                • jayne lee wilson
                  Banned
                  • Jul 2011
                  • 10711

                  #23
                  Didn't the Summer evening 3rd movement of Roussel 1 seduce you, Cal.? I always think of the depths of a forest, the dank heat and the stillness, when that gorgeous horncall floats in on a cushion of strings...

                  To be honest, Deneve is good but not quite evocative enough in No.1... a more lushly poetic account is the Het Symfonieorchest Van Vlaanderen with Fabrice Bollon on CYPRES 2620, though I guess you won't want another now! This disc does include a rare, and very good, performance of the excellent Piano Concerto. (I could easily recommend this album for audiophile sound alone).
                  One of those odd releases that bypassed most reviewers, it doesn't deserve its obscurity... there's also Pour une Fete de Printemps, where Bollon and the Flanders band show how attuned they are to the Roussel idiom.

                  Just a great Roussel release, really.

                  Comment

                  • ahinton
                    Full Member
                    • Nov 2010
                    • 16122

                    #24
                    Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View Post
                    Didn't the Summer evening 3rd movement of Roussel 1 seduce you, Cal.? I always think of the depths of a forest, the dank heat and the stillness, when that gorgeous horncall floats in on a cushion of strings...

                    To be honest, Deneve is good but not quite evocative enough in No.1... a more lushly poetic account is the Het Symfonieorchest Van Vlaanderen with Fabrice Bollon on CYPRES 2620, though I guess you won't want another now! This disc does include a rare, and very good, performance of the excellent Piano Concerto. (I could easily recommend this album for audiophile sound alone).

                    One of those odd releases that bypassed most reviewers, it doesn't deserve its obscurity... there's also Pour une Fete de Printemps, where Bollon and the Flanders band show how attuned they are to the Roussel idiom.

                    Just a great Roussel release, really.
                    Also sprach Société Roussel de For3.org!

                    And every possible endorsement from me! WHAT a composer he was!...

                    Comment

                    • Nick Armstrong
                      Host
                      • Nov 2010
                      • 26523

                      #25
                      Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View Post
                      Didn't the Summer evening 3rd movement of Roussel 1 seduce you, Cal.? I always think of the depths of a forest, the dank heat and the stillness, when that gorgeous horncall floats in on a cushion of strings...
                      I was hoping to like it a bit more than I did... I think it was there that I detected the odd Franck fingerprint, even a bit of post-Tristan droopiness, that didn't 'do it' for me on the first 2 or 3 hearings...
                      "...the isle is full of noises,
                      Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
                      Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
                      Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

                      Comment

                      • amateur51

                        #26
                        Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post
                        Betsy Jolas

                        ... was featured at the 1996 Huddersfield Festival (the last year in which Stockhausen attended), I attended a concert of her works given by students from the University of York. Sadly, I then found her Music rather under-powered and I can remember little of it. (There's a new CD of her work reviewed by Arnold Whittall in the current Tempo, which suggests that it might reward further investigation, and there are other discs already available.)

                        That year I was rather overwhelmed by the Stockhausen events (as I'd expected to be) and by my first encounter with the ELISION ensemble, playing, amongst other things, a set of pieces called Negatives. I forget the composer, but I remember being glad that I'd dared the blizzards on the Pennines (the snow falling so thick that there was only a four-inch square clear on my windscreen by the time I reached Denholme).

                        Sorry - gone off-topic. Time to get back to Martinet.
                        There's a review of a CD B for Betsy in the May 2013 edition of IRR. It's music by Mme Jolas played by Laurent Camatte (viola) and Géraldine Dutroncey (piano). A visit to Spotify reveals that it carries quite a bit by her too

                        Comment

                        • BBMmk2
                          Late Member
                          • Nov 2010
                          • 20908

                          #27
                          Has, anyone heard of the 19th Frenc h organist/composer. Alfred Louis Lefebure? He was totally different to other composers of the time.
                          Don’t cry for me
                          I go where music was born

                          J S Bach 1685-1750

                          Comment

                          • Nick Armstrong
                            Host
                            • Nov 2010
                            • 26523

                            #28
                            Originally posted by Brassbandmaestro View Post
                            Alfred Louis Lefebure? He was totally different to other composers of the time.
                            Not me. Different, how, BBM?
                            "...the isle is full of noises,
                            Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
                            Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
                            Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

                            Comment

                            • vinteuil
                              Full Member
                              • Nov 2010
                              • 12793

                              #29
                              Originally posted by Brassbandmaestro View Post
                              Has, anyone heard of the 19th Frenc h organist/composer. Alfred Louis Lefebure? He was totally different to other composers of the time.
                              ... if this is the chap you mean, o BBM - I relish the sheer bad taste of his organ works : quite the silliest pieces of music around, ideal for a fairground organ :

                              Comment

                              • BBMmk2
                                Late Member
                                • Nov 2010
                                • 20908

                                #30
                                Oh they are great fun, come on! I know quite a few learned organists who love his music!! :)
                                Don’t cry for me
                                I go where music was born

                                J S Bach 1685-1750

                                Comment

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