Elsa Barraine: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2; Illustration symphonique pour Pogromes d’Andre Spire; La Mise au tombeau du Titien (CPO)
★★★☆☆
The second symphony by this unsung French composer has been included on this summer season’s BBC Proms, and I wished to get accustomed to it earlier than deciding whether or not to go.
Barraine (1910-1999) had an eventful life. Daughter of the principal cello of the Paris Opéra, she attended the identical Conservatoire class as Olivier Messiaen, and received the distinguished Prix de Rome.
Her first symphony is dated 1931, the second 1938. She joined the Communist Occasion within the late Thirties and the Résistance throughout the German Occupation. Submit-Struggle she taught on the Conservatoire, was an inspector on the Ministry of Tradition and wrote music in reward of Vietnam and Might Day.
Intrigued? Moi, aussi.
The second symphony lasts 17 minutes, in three actions. It makes assured statements for massed brass, has whimsical moments for oboe, and doesn’t dally too lengthy over anybody theme. The language is extra Mahler than Messiaen, with tummy rumblings of Wagner and Magnard. Strive as I’d, I couldn’t discover a voice that declares itself to be Barraine. Solely the finale, with a ‘je m’en fou’ form of defiance, means that the composer is a Parisian of fun-loving propensities, presumably a hat-tip to her instructor Paul Dukas.
The primary symphony, eight minutes longer, is undercooked. The piece I actually appreciated on this document is a 1953 funereal reflection on Titian’s tomb, opening with the Dies irae on solo piano and creating in surprising instructions. The WDR Symphony Orchestra performs solidly below Elena Schwarz’s path. You’ve gotten surprise why one of many well-funded French orchestras didn’t do that first.
I’d like to listen to extra of Elsa Barraine’s later work, however to explain her, as this album does, as ‘one of the crucial vital composers of the twentieth century’ is absurd. Barraine was, and stays, a composer in quest of a voice.
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Norman Lebrecht is likely one of the most widely-read commentators on music, tradition and cultural politics. He’s an everyday presenter on BBC Radio 3 and a contributor to the Wall Avenue Journal, Bloomberg, Standpoint, Sinfini and different publications. His weblog, Slipped Disc, is among the many most generally learn cultural websites on-line, breaking unique tales and campaigning in opposition to human abuse and acts of injustice within the cultural industries.
