April 27, 2015

  • Bizet Orchestral Music

     

    Bizet: Orchestral Music
    RTE National Symphony Orchestra/Jean-Luc Tingaud
    Naxos 8.573344
    Total Time:  78:24
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Georges Bizet (1838-1875) somewhat ironically is best remembered today for what was in its time his biggest flop, Carmen.  In this new Naxos release, listeners get a chance to explore the composer’s delightful orchestral writing in a program of relatively lesser familiar, and even less performed works.  The presentation is set up to gradually move us to the more significant pieces among which is the composer’s lesser-known symphony, Roma.

    The opening selections are among some real rarities among which is an Overture in A composed around 1855 and considered to be Bizet’s first orchestral work that went unperformed in his lifetime.  One can certainly hear the Wagnerian influences most in this piece which was submitted with the hopes of winning the Prix de Rome.  The composer’s lyricism and melodic abilities though are certainly on display in the piece with a blend of Rossini/Suppe perhaps as well.  It serves as a comparison to the more familiar Patrie overture (1873)—a dramatic response to the end of the Franco-Prussian War.  Dedicatd to Massenet, this piece features excellent martial suggestions with great brass writing and is certainly now firmly demonstrating Bizet’s command of orchestral color.  The overtures are bookended by two smaller works.  Composed as an opera prelude for a rigged contest which the composer did not win, the rest of the work is now considered lost, the Marche funebre in b (1860-1861) opens the disc.  This is a fairly impassioned little orchestral work that does feel more like an overture with a beautiful lyrical central section with hints of tragedy.

    More familiar territory is found in the Petite Suite, Op. 22 (1871) a set of five movements Bizet orchestrated from his piano suite Jeux d’enfants.  The posthumous publication did not include though the Esquisse: Les quatre coins and this precedes the more familiar movements here.  The work is really a delight to hear and actually to play as well.  The light touch in the opening march sets just the right tone here with great articulation across the orchestra.  The beautiful “Berceuse” unfolds well providing a gentle contrast.  The orchestra plays these pieces with a great sense of joy and response to Tingaud’s direction.

    Finally, we get a chance to experience Bizet’s orchestral style and use of more formal structures in his Roma symphony.  He conceived the work shortly after winning the Prix de Rome and would spend most of the 1860s working and revising the piece until its final revision of 1871.  The opening movement boldly opens with just horns and woodwind colors before the strings enter in and the hunt is off as the movement gains speed for the central “Allegro agitato”.  The calm returns to bring the movement to a close.  The second movement is a scherzo set up in fugal imitation for strings.  The whirling winds in the central sections are quite impressive.  The third movement is another display of Bizet’s lyrical writing with first strings presenting the opening theme and then winds employed for the secondary theme.  The final movement is an appropriate tarantella of sorts with an oboe theme.  Different episodes allow Bizet to explore different sections of the orchestra.

    Classic recordings with Ernst Ansermet are always worth tracking down of this music, but this is a great way for fans of Carmen to have a good collection of Bizet’s orchestral music minus the more performed suites from that opera or those of L’Arlesienne.  Jean-Luc Tingaud studied with Maurice Rosenthal and thus has a long historical connection to Ravel and classic conducting skills and interpretations for this music.  The orchestra here responds quite well to his direction providing great articulation and sensitive shaping of phrases throughout.  This is a very delightful disc for Francophiles and lovers of Bizet’s music.