Thanks BSP and ferney. Chailley was No 9 on my list! 
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I just listened to the Chailley Symphony - a fine, powerful neo-romantic work, full of conviction, with tilts towards Roussel and Honegger in the first movement, and even a semi-quote from "Night on a Bare Mountain" - for which many thanks again, ferney. More to follow when I've got a few moments.Comment
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So much more to listen to. Will there be the time?Don’t cry for me
I go where music was born
J S Bach 1685-1750Comment
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My second introduction is to Georges Migot (1891 - 1976), a composer who remained steadfastly faithful to the luminaries of the Schola Cantorum school under whom he had studied.
It might be hard to imagine from the link below that Migot wrote a tribute to Debussy, which is also available, among the few things of his that are, on youtube; but the idea of this thread is to introduce composers people might not know of, and this might include some who are undoubtedly of interest but obviously won't be to everyone's taste. And some things about this performance might have some bearing in this particular instance.
Last edited by Serial_Apologist; 23-08-18, 19:46.Comment
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Migot was a prolific composer with at least twelve completed symphonies, probably two more ( one with organ) that are unfinished, and a sinfonietta.(Something of the fluency of Darius Milhaud?)
Somewhere, I have a score of a wind trio by him... it’s neat, touched by Jean Francaix but detached from Neo-classicism which Georges rejected.
He was a poet and painter, as well.Comment
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Jean Rivier: 1896-1987
I don't think my late father, who made Radio 3 broadcasts filching with the help of a reel-to-reel almost into a retirement hobby, ever recorded more than one piece by Jean Rivier - the Ibert-ish sax concerto, IIRC. A composer of Neo-Classical bent, Rivier shared with the temperamentally very different Milhaud the composition professorship at the Paris Conservatoire for many years. Like the latter he composed symphonies, but in an altogether tougher, more urban vein, closer to Roussel's second than any by Darius. Which, alongside the twin hegemonics of post-Les Six and La rising Jeune France may have accounted for his near-eclipse, and many works being out of publication. So, with that and the fact that French composers have a disingenuous reputation for not being natural symphonists, as much as the whole point of this thread, I offer this link to the First Symphony of 1931, which I am listening to for the first time, much impressed by its character and integrity, and the troubled haunting atmosphere of its slow movement, performed by the ORTF orchestra, with which Monsieur Rivier was also associated. I shall definitely be returning to Rivier. As with a lot of the music I am discovering, this has a stoical, heroic quality about it, yielding to warmth only in the touching extended coda concluding the work; and we could do with a bit of that these days!
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Marcel Delannoy: 1898-1962
Jean Rivier's junior by two years, Marcel Delannoy's brief tutorship with André Gedalge brough him closer in learning to Ravel, alongside whom he collaborated, with others, on the ballet score "L'eventail de Jeanne" of 1927 - a soberer follow-up to "Les mariées de la Tour Eiffel" Les Six "collaboration" [sic] of 1921 - producing the attractive if somewhat anonymous "Bourrée", the fourth number:
(The other contributants to this joint enterprise, also to be found on youtube, were Ravel, Milhaud, Schmitt, Poulenc, Ibert, Ferroud (coming soon!), Auric, Roussel, and Roland-Manuel)
Delannoy was otherwise self-taught, enjoying the encouragement of Honegger, whose biography he wrote in 1953, two years before the Swiss-French composer's death, and to whom stylistically he owed somewhat, while treading, like so many of those under consideration here, his own creative path. This is the poignant opening movement of his first string quartet, of 1931:
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I got to know and enjoy Jean Rivier through an Erato LP that I picked up in Wardour ST. LondonOriginally posted by Serial_Apologist View PostJean Rivier: 1896-1987
I don't think my late father, who made Radio 3 broadcasts filching with the help of a reel-to-reel almost into a retirement hobby, ever recorded more than one piece by Jean Rivier - the Ibert-ish sax concerto, IIRC. A composer of Neo-Classical bent, Rivier shared with the temperamentally very different Milhaud the composition professorship at the Paris Conservatoire for many years. Like the latter he composed symphonies, but in an altogether tougher, more urban vein, closer to Roussel's second than any by Darius. Which, alongside the twin hegemonics of post-Les Six and La rising Jeune France may have accounted for his near-eclipse, and many works being out of publication. So, with that and the fact that French composers have a disingenuous reputation for not being natural symphonists, as much as the whole point of this thread, I offer this link to the First Symphony of 1931, which I am listening to for the first time, much impressed by its character and integrity, and the troubled haunting atmosphere of its slow movement, performed by the ORTF orchestra, with which Monsieur Rivier was also associated. I shall definitely be returning to Rivier. As with a lot of the music I am discovering, this has a stoical, heroic quality about it, yielding to warmth only in the touching extended coda concluding the work; and we could do with a bit of that these days!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Rivier
Nadia Tagrine, piano (in the 3rd work) ; Jean-Francois Paillard Chamber Orchestra ; Jean-Francois Paillard, conductor.
Symphony no. 3 in G major for string orchestra (1938) / Jean Rivier
Four preludes for string orchestra / Henry Barraud
Variations for piano and string orchestra / Daniel-Lesur
Yes, the Rivier symphony is Neo-classical and well-constructed.
My favourite work on the disc was Daniel-Lesur’s Variations with Nadia Tagrine playing with authority in a supportive acoustic that gave her piano an almost bell-like resonance that contrasted well with the bite and resinous quality of the strings.
I suspect that somewhere buried in my library is a m.s. of the Rivier, as 50 years ago when I bought the album, I was keen to understand how JR constructed his music.Comment
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Henri Tomasi(1901 - 71)'s "delectable" Trumpet Concerto is broadcast this afternoon (Mon, 29/10/18 - at about 4:00pm-ish) from a concert given on 10th April, this year.
(Actually, for a "neglected" composer, Tomasi isn't doing too badly: more than sixty performances in various countries in the last twelve months. Mostly featuring the three concertos for Trumpet, for Saxophone, and for Trombone - but still ... )
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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Continuing my journey through a group of French composers from a generation unjustly neglected by promoter and broadcasters in this country - and with thanks to edastav and ferney for their contributions - we now come to Marcelle de Manziarly: born in 1899 (in the Ukraine); died 1989, in California. Here is her 1968 Sonata for Two pianos - the idiom, which is surefooted and quite distinct from that of the composers I have considered thus far - reminds me of Michael Tippett's first piano sonata:
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Henri Barraud (1900 - 1997) studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Louis Aubert, a pupil of Faure, but at 27 failed to graduate, allegedly owing to his hostility to orthodoxy. Subsequently he formed a new music publicity group called Triton with Jean Rivier and Pierre-Octave Ferroud, the latter coming next on our itinerary. Barraud composed in all the media, including five grand operas and three symphonies - his career spanning a period from the early 1930s to the mid-1970s. This is his Piano Concerto of 1939:
The work shows considerable depths of feeling, I think, and while comparatively conservative in idiom, is instantly recognisable as being part of the maturing of the 20th century French tradition in the 1930s, and as such, well deserving of a hearing today.Comment
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I don't believe that Paul le Flem (1881-1984) has yet been mentioned...Comment
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Indeed not - thank you for mentioning him, ahinton. Having only ever seen his name I'd assumed him to be a Belgian. It was with le Flem that Satie studied when he went to the Schola Cantorum. Here is his lovely, rather Chaussonesque (Or Debussyian, from the early "Printemps" period) Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra of 1911:Originally posted by ahinton View Post
Almost all the composers on this thread were just names to me in books I'd acquired: before embarking on this escapade I hadn't heard their music.Comment
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Jean Cras (1879-1932)
Some lovely chamber works:
Quintet for flute, harp & strings
Piano quintet,
String quartet,
String trio No. 3,
Piano trio,
Cello sonata,
I hope to explore his choral and orchestra works.Comment
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