Vincent D'indy: Orchestral Works (Vol 1-5) (2008-2013)

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Vincent D'indy: Orchestral Works (Vol 1-5) (2008-2013)

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D’Indy was a contemporary of Debussy and Ravel, and a pupil of César Franck. Fauré described him as ‘The Samson of Music’ for his multifarious and generous-minded work as a composer, conductor, educator and propagandist who greatly strengthened French musical culture. Today the music of d’Indy is sadly neglected, which is why Chandos and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra have decided to embark upon a series devoted to his orchestral works with conductor Rumon Gamba. With a style essentially eclectic and strongly influenced above all by Beethoven and Wagner, d’Indy particularly excelled in orchestral composition. He drew particular inspiration from his native region in southern France, and formed a body of post-romantic works richly orchestrated, often inflected with folk-like melodies and employing Franck’s well-known ‘cyclic method’.

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Vincent D'indy: Orchestral Works (Vol 1-5) (2008-2013)

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Most listeners know of Vincent d'Indy for his most famous work, Symphony on a French Mountain Air, which used to be regularly tacked onto recordings of Franck's D minor symphony. This new Chandos disc, Volume 1 of a projected series, offers a more expanded view of the composer's works. Of the program's three pieces, the quasi-impressionistic Jour d'été à la montagne (1905) is the most forward-looking, evoking a sound world similar to Debussy's (as in Pelleas and Melisande), its three movements describing a day in the Ardeche mountains, replete with high-altitude vistas and busy activity.

In Souvenirs (also 1905) d'Indy pulls back from the advanced harmonies and timbres of the earlier Jour d'été à la montagne and instead retreats into the tonal landscapes of Dukas and Chausson. But d'Indy's distinct musical personality nevertheless comes through strongly, especially in the sparkling third movement of this poignant, touching work, composed as a memorial to his wife.

Finally, La foret enchantée (1878) sounds less exotic than its title, especially when compared to the above works. But it's a colorful, finely wrought piece that reveals d'Indy's early infatuation with Wagner as well as the influence of his teacher, César Franck. Rumon Gamba's sensitive, nuanced interpretations and the Iceland Symphony's rich-textured and colorful playing create a dreamy atmosphere ideally suited to this music–an effect enhanced by Chandos' solid and reverberant recording. All told this is a very fine disc–a little off the beaten path, but all the more enjoyable for that.

Composer: Vincent D'Indy
Performer: Sigrún Edvaldsdóttir
Conductor: Rumon Gamba
Orchestra/Ensemble: Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Reviews: “Three of d'Indy's most colourful works show him not only as an impressionist in a Debussian mould but also influenced by Wagner and folk music from his own culture. La forêt enchantée (1878) is described as a 'légende-symphonique' and is inspired by an epic ballad by Ludwig Uhland. D'Indy creates a mysteriously expectant opening atmosphere, then Knight Harald and his followers ride out vigorously. Female elves seduce his followers, but Harald loftily resists their enticements and gallops off to reach an enchanted spring, where the elves are waiting for him. This time he yields to their alluring invitation before slipping into a 'centuries-lasting' sleep.
By the time the masterly Jour d'été à la montagne was written some 30 years later, d'Indy's style had matured. While the Wagnerian sensuality remains, here the influences from Debussy and even Ravel are very potent: there's a daybreak with an orchestral chorus of birds. The sultry central movement, 'Après-midi sous les pins', includes lively folk dancing before the clouds arrive, with thunder in the distance. Twilight transforms the mood for 'Soir' and the work closes in nocturnal bliss.
D'Indy wrote Souvenirs almost immediately afterwards (in 1906) in memory of his wife (represented by a leitmotif, Bien-Aimée), recalling the couple's idyllic summers together and again evoking the countryside. This idée fixe is continually transformed before the music darkens and 12 harp harmonics set the time of Isabelle's death at midnight; the evocation ends in sad serene acceptance.
The rich orchestration in all three works is superbly realised by the excellent Iceland Symphony Orchestra under Rumon Gamba and the state-of-the-art Chandos recording; definitely a key record of d'Indy's orchestral output.”

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Vincent D'indy: Orchestral Works (Vol 1-5) (2008-2013)

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Symphony No.2 is of particular interest as there have been very few recordings of this major work. Completed in 1903, the work is inspired by D’Indy’s mentor, Cesar Franck and is highly ambitious in its philosophical scope. This is particularly notable in the symbolic importance of cyclic ideas recurring between movements and the classical values of formal structure and tonal harmony. The result is a large-scale romantic four-movement symphony dedicated to the memory of his friend Ernest Chausson.

The three pieces that make up the Karadec Suite Op.34 were written as incidental music for the long forgotten play Karadec by André Alexander. Critic Francisque Sarcey, writing in Le Temps, noted of d'Indy's score, "…we were held by it and genuinely moved…." The score was dedicated to Julien Tiersot, a fellow Franck pupil and authority on French folk song. Set in Brittany, Karadec gave d'Indy license to make liberal use of Breton folk song.

Tableaux de Voyages Op.36 was a result of a trip that d’Indy had made to Bayreuth in August 1888 to hear Wagner’s Meistersinger and Parsifal. D’Indy realized his impressions of this trip as a set of thirteen piano pieces: Tableaux de Voyage Op. 33, Treize pièces pour piano. He subsequently orchestrated six of the thirteen pieces, which are performed here and are a fine example of D’Indy’s genius.

Composer: Vincent D'Indy
Performer: Sigrún Edvaldsdóttir
Conductor: Rumon Gamba
Orchestra/Ensemble: Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Reviews: “None of the three previous recordings of the symphony… survived very long in the catalogue, so Gamba's vibrant yet cogent interpretation plugs a glaring gap. …the playing of the Iceland SO combines commendable polish and contagious dedication, and Chandos's sound has both tangible presence and enticing glow.”

“…a vital, vividly scored and eventually stirring piece. When d'Indy escapes from his determination to build most of it from the same two themes, he comes up with moments of breathtaking poetry and strikingly personal harmonic colour. Rumon Gamba keeps it all on the move… The orchestra, bright in tone against a resonant background, could do with weightier strings but plays with precision and energy…”

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Vincent D'indy: Orchestral Works (Vol 1-5) (2008-2013)

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Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra follow their Grammy-nominated volume 1 and Editor’s Choice winning Volume 2 with four rare orchestral works from Vincent D’Indy’s legacy. The previous volumes have obtained such comments as ‘…superbly realised by the excellent Iceland Symphony Orchestra under Rumon Gamba and the state-of-the-art Chandos recording; definitely a key record of d’Indy’s orchestra output' (Gramophone) and ‘this series is going to be virtually definitive’ Musical Opinion

Composed in 1916-18 at the climax of the Great War, d’Indy’s last symphony is a valid reflection of his intense patriotism. In its dramatic theatric and tonal conflicts it well portrays the heightened emotions of exaltation and terror experienced by the French nation. D’Indy’s seven-variation programmatic work, Istar, Op.42 is a beautiful, flowing work set in the underworld and inspired by the sixth canto of an ancient Assyrian epic poem called Izdubar that was probably written around 2000 B.C.

The unconventionally conceived yet well integrated work Choral Varie for Saxophone Solo ans orchestra, Op.55 employs an eclectic variety of styles. Like certain other French composers such as Bizet, D’Indy well understood the saxophone’s expressive potential. The solo role is taken by one of Iceland’s most prominent musicians, Sigurður Flosason, who has twice been nominated for the Nordic Music Prize, and four time winner of the Icelandic Music Awards.

Volume 3 is completed by D’Indy’s last orchestral work, Diptyque Mediterraneen, Op.87. It reflects the Indian summer which his happy second marriage brought him in his final decade. There is a certain similarity with the earlier Ardeche-inspired Jour d’ete a la montagne in its illustration of the sacred rhythms of nature during the course of the day, but here the influence of Debussy is clearly apparent in its superb Mediterranean-like clarity of texture.

Composer: Vincent D'Indy
Performer: Sigurður Flosason
Conductor: Rumon Gamba
Orchestra/Ensemble: Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Reviews: Amazingly, most of this music is available in multiple recordings, even the much-maligned Third Symphony, subtitled "Short Symphony in a Time of War". It's actually not that short (32 minutes), and it's really not a bad piece at all, being closely argued and sporting more than a few attractive ideas. However, the two major pieces are Istar, one of d'Indy's most convincing essays and a wholly winning combination of compact form (variations, with the theme only revealed at the end) and exotic tone-color, and the Diptyque, warm and mellow, sort of like French Delius. The Choral varié features an interesting solo part for saxophone, very well played here, but the music is less compelling than that of the other pieces.

However, the performances generally sound very convincing. Rumon Gamba doesn't let d'Indy's post-Franckian chromatic harmony gum up the music's works, and he chooses tempos that never let the listener's attention stray. The Iceland Symphony plays quite well–better, in fact, than the provincial French ensembles traditionally entrusted with this repertoire on its previous outings for labels like EMI or Auvidis (remember them?). The relative lack of heft in the strings also isn't the liability it seemed to be in the performance of the Second Symphony in Volume 2. With very good engineering, this third volume in Chandos' ongoing series deserves a spot on your shelf.

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Vincent D'indy: Orchestral Works (Vol 1-5) (2008-2013)

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The exclusive Chandos artist Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra here return with Volume 4 of Chandos’ highly acclaimed series devoted to these unjustly neglected orchestral works. Of Symphony No. 3 on Volume 3, released in 2010, Classic FM said: ‘Following their first two much-praised discs, Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony further champion the lushly colourful and impressionistic orchestral music of Vincent d’Indy. It’s a fascinating work that mixes straightforward militaristic passages with a high-Romantic, 20th-century language that’s part Expressionist, part Impressionist’.

Symphonie italienne was written when d’Indy was in his late teens. It was strongly inspired by his travels in Italy, and the four movements bear the respective titles ‘Rome’, ‘Florence’, ‘Venice’, and ‘Naples’. Heavily indebted in style to Mendelsohn, Schumann, and Berlioz, this tuneful work was a tremendous if ambitious undertaking for the comparative novice, and shows early signs of the composer’s strong intellectual musical mind.

D’Indy composed the Symphonie Suite Poème des Rivages, his late orchestral masterpiece, in 1919 – 21. It is a work of outstanding technical accomplishment and poetic inspiration, which succeeds in combining the solid post-Franckian structures with the textual and colouristic fluidity of Debussy. The orchestral forces, including four saxophones, create an almost visual impression of light and atmosphere, in the manner of Claude Monet. Its well-received premiere took place in New York on 1 December 1921 under d’Indy’s direction.

Composer: Vincent D'Indy
Conductor: Rumon Gamba
Orchestra/Ensemble: Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Reviews: Symphonie italienne was written when d’Indy was in his late teens. It was strongly inspired by his travels in Italy, and the four movements bear the respective titles ‘Rome’, ‘Florence’, ‘Venice’, and ‘Naples’. Heavily indebted in style to Mendelsohn, Schumann, and Berlioz, this tuneful work was a tremendous if ambitious undertaking for the comparative novice, and shows early signs of the composer’s strong intellectual musical mind.

d’Indy composed the Symphonie Suite Poème des Rivages, his late orchestral masterpiece, in 1919 – 21. It is a work of outstanding technical accomplishment and poetic inspiration, which succeeds in combining the solid post-Franckian structures with the textual and colouristic fluidity of Debussy. The orchestral forces, including four saxophones, create an almost visual impression of light and atmosphere, in the manner of Claude Monet. Its well-received premiere took place in New York on 1 December 1921 under d’Indy’s direction.

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Vincent D'indy: Orchestral Works (Vol 1-5) (2008-2013)

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This is Volume 5 in our series dedicated to the orchestral works of Vincent d’Indy, nicknamed ‘The Samson of Music’ by Fauré, for his work as a composer, conductor, and teacher. His style was essentially eclectic, strongly influenced by Beethoven and Wagner, into which he frequently incorporated folk melodies.

Composer: Vincent D'Indy
Performer: Louis Lortie
Conductor: Rumon Gamba
Orchestra/Ensemble: Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Reviews: Based on a folk tune from the Tourtous, the Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français is today one of the best-loved works by d’Indy. This highly atmospheric work is scored for piano and orchestra; however, far from engaging in conflict with the orchestra, the soloist here operates on equal terms. The solo part is performed by the internationally acclaimed pianist Louis Lortie.

The symphonic poem Saugefleurie tells the story of the tragic love between Saugefleurie, a lonely yet charming little fairy, and the King’s son, based on a poem from the Contes de fees by Robert de Bonnières, a friend of the composer’s. The Wagnerian influence is apparent throughout; however, in terms of orchestration and sonority this work remains characteristically French.

Among the now forgotten works of the French poet, novelist, and dramatist Catulle Mendès is the play Medée, based on the Greek myth of Medea, who murdered her two sons in revenge for her rejection by her lover Jason, the leader of the Argonauts. D’Indy wrote incidental music to the play in 1898, and later preserved it in the form of an orchestral suite in five movements, recorded here.

Also on the theme of doomed love is d’Indy’s first opera, Fervaal, a work of Wagnerian scale and proportions, and clearly displaying the influence of Parsifal in the complex network of leitmotivs. At the same time, in its historical setting at the time of the Saracen invasion, and in its musical evocation of local colour, it reflects the earlier Parisian Grand Opéra of Meyerbeer and Halévy.

This recording is the first ever made at Harpa, the new concert hall in Reykjavik, which opened its doors to the public in May 2011, and was subsequently named by Gramophone one of the greatest concert halls of the new millennium.