April 25, 2018

  • Exploring Mid-1840s Symphonies by Farrenc

     

    Farrenc: Symphonies 2 & 3
    Soloistes Europeens, Luxembourg/Christoph Konig
    Naxos 8.573706
    Total Time:  67:06
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

     

    Over the past few decades, there has been a welcome exploration of music that has been unjustly neglected from composers across musical periods and styles.  Naxos has been among the labels at the forefront of recording these works and the present release is an excellent example of their expanding musical catalogue.  In this case, it is the music of Louise Farrenc (1804-1875), a woman who became the first person of her gender to hold the senior professor of piano position at the Paris Conservatory.  Like other women who gained attention for their musical abilities, Farrenc began her career as a pianist, first in private salons and then in public to critical acclaim.  She married a composer at the young age of 17 and was encouraged to continue her career.  He also encouraged her to publish her music which began with works for piano, and then a variety of chamber pieces before completing her first symphony in 1841.  Later she would begin collecting early music for an anthology of keyboard music that would include works by Frescobaldi, Couperin, and even the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book—scholarship that would leave an indelible impact on the further exploration of this music by later generations.  Farrenc’s music was additional supported by composers such as Hummel, Auber, and Halevy with even supportive reviews by Berlioz and even Robert Schumann.  Her work comes at that interesting transition of Beethoven’s Romanticism, and the continuation of Classicism in the music of Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Schumann.  We thus should expect her music to fall in line with this early Romantic style in the two symphonies recorded here which come from the 1840s.  The mid-1840s were this period where we find Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, Wagner completing The Flying Dutchman and Tannheuser; Berlioz The Damnation of Faust, the Op. 60s mazurkas, nocturnes, and waltzes of Chopin; and works which appear prior to Schumann’s own third symphony (1850).  These are all part of the musical development occurring concurrently as Farrenc sits down to begin her own symphonic essays.

    That said, it is Beethoven, and the later Mozart, who perhaps cast the shadows across the second symphony from 1845.  The work was premiered alongside Mozart’s d-minor concerto (K. 466) with Farrenc as soloist.  And though the work is in “D Major”, there is much movement into the minor throughout the work’s dramatic writing.  The opening andante has a rather stormy beginning with some interesting wind writing that helps eventually to move into interesting harmonic areas.  The cadences have a rather witty interplay and motion that does not always allow the music to settle down.  The thematic development does follow along the lines of a motivic and thematic deconstruction which Beethoven introduced.  The switched between major and minor key harmonies is another of the unique aspects of this opening movement in particular.  Strings drive the music with winds given some excellent segments of their own for contrast and often scored as a growing dialogue between them with themes handed between them.  Eventually, the development will bring strings into that conversation as well.  This style continues in a beautiful and delicate Andante with material moving between the strings and winds almost like a chamber serenade.  The Scherzo movement has some rather unique things happening in it as well.  For one, it moves from 3 / 4 (in a fast 1) to 2 / 4 in the trio.  The central trio also features some great writing that invites the horns more into the musical exploration while the strings skitter about.  Again, the command of the shifts between the different winds is a remarkable command of orchestral color—perhaps an early sign of such writing that would become more striking by the end of the century in French music.  The final movement also has a grand opening Andante before we take off of with a great, more angular opening theme and a Beethoven-esque finale complete with excellent harmonic surprises and superb wind writing.  In all, the second symphony turns out to be a rather engaging work certainly worth of further resurrection and performance with some links to the design of Beethoven’s Eroica.  Like most of Farrenc’s orchestral music it would remain unpublished in her lifetime.

    Farrenc’s Symphony No. 3 in g minor, Op. 36, continues to help provide us that musical transition from Beethoven and Weber, to mid-century Romantic style.  Here harmonic development begins to flirt more with that of the advancing chromaticism.  The work was unfortunately performed on a concert with Beethoven’s fifth symphony using undue comparisons that did not help the work.  It begins with an almost operatic Adagio that slowly builds until it becomes a forceful triple meter theme.  This shifts to a more lyrical second subject.  Again it is this rather wonderful shift between the wind statements and their interplay where this work also shines.  The gorgeously lyrical second movement is another highlight linking us to an almost Schubertian parallel.  The scherzo has some equally fascinating harmonic ideas as it bubbles along.  Harmony is also one of the things that is noticeable in the equally dramatic finale.

    The opportunity here is great for this release as it is only the second available of these two works.  The other is on an older CPO release with an additional work which makes it slightly more attractive, but the price range helps bumps this up in consideration.  One can generally see when Naxos knows they have a good performance in hand when the recording date and release date are close and that is certainly the case here with these recordings made in 2016 and 2017.  The imaging here is superb with excellent balance in the orchestra, a mark of the performers themselves more than even the recording process.  These are really excellent performances that one can turn to for exploring this music for many years.  Even if this was a standard repertoire recording of Mozart, Haydn, or Beethoven, one suspects the Luxembourg group would give more familiar ensembles a run for their money.  How much greater though to have brought these delightful and engaging works to the fore.  Here is hoping we may get a companion release with this ensemble exploring the composer’s overtures and even the first symphony.