Month: July 2024

On the heels of my comparative review of both recording of Honegger’s Judith – a review 22 years in the making (see my blog-post of July 29), I’ve reposted from Amazon.com three reviews from a decade ago (I had a big Honegger spree that spring and summer) of Honegger’s mighty La Danse des morts (on a text by playright and poet Paul Claudel), by the obscure Henri Vachey leading the improbable Douai Youth Symphony Orchestra in 1981 for Calliope and reissued in 1992, Calliope CAL 9855 (reissued by the label Phaia Music in 2014), Michel Corboz and his Portuguese forces of the Gulbenkian Foundation in 1989 on Erato 2292-45520-2 (reissued on Cascavelle c. 2000), and Edmon Colomer at the Soissons Cathedral in 2002, released in 2004 by Calliope again, CAL 9526.

Any performance of La Danse des Morts will succeed or stumble upon its narrator – and it is hard to walk in the footsteps and shadow of Charles Munch’s hallucinatory Jean-Louis Barrault – or rather, out of them -, in their historical wartime recording made shortly after the premiere – although Munch bettered himself in his live performance given in Boston in 1952 with excellent narrator Arnold Moss, brought back in a 7-CD set by West Hill Radio Archives documenting Munch’s early years in Boston.

And, whatever the merits of their recording, in sonics, orchestral playing, choral singing and quality of their soloists, Corboz and Colomer both fail indeed on the weakness of their respective narrator – Corboz’ Oers Kisfaludy trying hard and sounding as comical as a puny teenager trying to play “big”, and Colomer’s Lambert Wilson, so univolved and matter-of-fact that he could be describing his meal or talking about his next vacation.

Surprisingly, it is Vachey who turns out an excellent version, one that won’t replace Munch and Barrault but that can complement them, with his Douai Youth Symphony and Ensemble vocal Roland de Lassus entirely up to the music’s demand, his baritone Michel Piquemal who would almost make you forget Munch’s unforgettable Charles Panzéra, and his narrator, Jean Davy, sounding indeed somewhat matter-of-fact at the begining, but speaking with an authoritative voice and soon rising to the occasion, but always with more restraint than Barrault, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Vachey also offers two fine complements (recorded for the CD release, a decade after La Danse des Morts): Honegger’s rare Nocturne from 1936 and popular Pastorale d’été, both beautifully played.

Only proviso: texts and translations not provided, you can find them only on the Corboz disc (the Calliope Colomer offers only French text).

If interested by Honegger, see my Honegger introductory page with a commented, chronological discography (work in progress). There’s still a lot that I have to transfer from Amazon, and a number of CDs I need to hear and review.

I’ve also transfered over here my review of Milhaud’s improbable but enjoyable Choral Symphony Pacem in terris set on the words (in Latin) of Pope John XXIII’s encyclical “Peace on earth”, paired with the composer’s early collaboration with playright (and back then ambassador in Brazil, with Milhaud his secretary) Paul Claudel, an original “chamber-ballet” meant for (but never performed by) Nijinsky. Both works were recorded in 1965 and are conducted by Maurice Abravanel leading h is Utah Symphony Orchestra, on Vanguard 08 9070 71 (1992, European edition) and OVC 8067 (1993, North-American edition).

At last! I’ve published a thorough comparative review of the (only) two recordings of Honegger’s Judith, by Maurice Abravanel conducting his Salt Lake City forces in 1964 for Vanguard, and Michel Corboz for Cascavelle in Lisbon in June 1990 (link will open a new tab to the review). The work originated in 1925 as a Biblical Play, a collaboration with playright and poet René Morax (whose King David, four years earlier, had skyrocketed the young composer to fame), premiered as its predecessor, but with much less success, at Théâtre du Jorat (a large 1000-seat wooden hall 20 kilometers away from Lausanne). As with King David, it is not the original, theatrical version that is performed and recorded (rarely in the case of Judith), but the concert version/oratorio that Honegger drew from it, with narrator substituting to the many spoken roles of the original version. But in the case of Judith, Honegger also wrote a fully-developed opera from it, which is now rarely played if ever, and has never been recorded, much to my regret.

I’m happy and somewhat relieved to have accomplished the mission. This review had been in the making for… 22 years. Here’s the anecdote – and the anecdote about the anecdote.

I had bought the Corboz CD upon its release and given it a casual listening, and then the Abravanel recording in 1999 (you still payed in French francs back then). As I wanted to study the piece and recordings thoroughly, in 2002 I went to publisher Salabert (“22 rue Chauchat”) and borrowed the vocal score of the full-opera version, against a deposit of 60 euros, that would be cashed if I didn’t give back the score within a month.

Well, I must have forgotten about the check, and I let the package lay there, never very far, until due time would come. So, it took me 22 years to come to it, and I moved houses three times in the meanwhile. I don’t remember if the check was cashed, but I see no reason why it wouldn’t.

I recounted this anecdote in my review that I wrote and posted yesterday, concluding with these words: “Now that I’ve posted this comparative review I really need to return the score. Maybe they’ll forgive me. Maybe they’ll even thank me for being so belatedly honest. Or maybe, if they have cashed the check, now I own the score and may keep it? What does Jiminy Cricket have to say about this?”

And today comes the light-hearted but truly incredible anecdote about the anecdote.

As I was, past midnight and in bed with the laptop, putting the finishing touches to the review and preparing to batten down the hatches, I heard a small rustle in my room. I was clueless to what it was – maybe some object near my bedside table subject to the laws of gravity and sliding in (or out of) position? but the rustle noise repeated, and small objects subject to gravity don’t really do that. Some insect? But which? The rustle sound was too soft to be a mouse… but too distinct to be a spider…. Or a big spider? But I don’t live in a region where you’d meet spiders big enough to correspond to that sound….

Ultimately I decided not to bother, and finally shut down everything. But as sleep was casting its veil over me… I felt something in my hair! That spider? Anyway, very spooky, and whatever it was I frantically brushed it away, turned on the light, looked under bed and bedside table, saw nothing…

Turned off the light, tried to go back to sleep… and heard that rustling noise again. Turned on the light, inspected the surrounding…. AND I SAW IT!

And this is what I saw:

… A cricket! (or is it a locust? I’m not very good with wild life…).

So, now, tell me that obscure powers of fate aren’t at play to convey a message to me! I post that review wondering what Jiminy Cricket would advise me to do, and the next minute, in the dark, he’s up there in my hair? And I didn’t even know I lived in a place where you could find crickets/locusts that big! The thing was easily 10 centimeters long (that would be 4 inches)…. I know, small fry if you live in some tropical forest, but I’ve never seen any of that size in the decades I’ve lived in this neighborhood….

Okay okay, Jiminy, I’ll call Salabert today…

…and, friends of animals and members of SPCA, you need not worry: I spared the life of my conscience – just threw it out the window.

(and with that, you’d think that, after pondering this comparative review for 22 years, I could give you an informed advice on which of the two recordings to buy… not so. Both are good, none is ideal, the two are complementary, ideal would have been Abravanel conducting the soloists and chorus of Corboz… in the operatic version. Until something like that happens, I’m keeping the two recordings)