Lili BOULANGER (1893-1918)
Fauste et Hélène *
Psaume 24
Psaume 130: Du fond de l'abîme †
D'un soir triste
D'un matin de printemps
Lynne Dawson (soprano) *;
Bonaventura Bottone (tenor) *; Jason Howard (bass) *Anne Murray (mezzo-soprano)
†; Neil MacKenzie (tenor) †
City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus;
BBC Philharmonic conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier
CHANDOS CHAN 9745
[73:24]
Crotchet
Beautiful, exceptionally gifted, but aware of her short mortality, Lili Boulanger
created a small corpus of works that was individual and pungent. As this
collection demonstrates, her style was anything but bland and pretty. Her
sister, Nadia, who was stimulated by Lili to embark on her long and influential
career as a teacher of composition, declared Lili to be the 'first important
woman composer' - a perhaps over-enthusiastic laudation, but one with which
I would not entirely argue. Lili Boulanger's style is quite individual, but
at the same time it does show a quite marked influence of Debussy and, to
a lesser extent, Fauré
Lili's brief setting of Psaume 24 (The earth is the Lord's
and the fulness thereof…) begins explosively with majestic organ chords
and brilliant trumpet fanfares, and an urgent male chorus in highly accented
staccato rhythms. Immediately, the ear is arrested by such colourful harmonies.
This is an individual and dynamic voice. Later, in the middle of the work,
the music subsides into the contemplative and older church mode styles. Her
use of these modes crops up again in D'un soir triste written
in the last year of her life (Lili died at the tragically early age of 24)
and one cannot help thinking that her feelings were channelled into this
deeply felt work. It is a struggle from darkness towards light with music
that seems to collapse under its own despairing weight. A muted tam-tam crash
and huge bass drum figures point spectral fingers towards a funeral march
with off-beat colouring on harp and percussion. This music is really nightmarish
and ghoulish; but, quite suddenly and strangely, the music seems to transform
itself from the personal to a wider significance for the music seems to suggest
that we are a spectator on the Via Dolorosa.
The companion piece to D'un soir triste is D'un matin de printemps,
written at the same time. But the mood this time is more positive
even if the transience of Spring's beauty is implicit. This music is exuberant,
with tenderness turning to the passion of pro-creation. Often the music is
quicksilver, gossamer and fairy-light with interesting harmonies and
orchestrations such as lightly tapped and brushed snare drums.
The main work on the disc is Fauste et Hélène.
This is allegedly based on Part Two of Goethe's Faust but
in fact it has very little to do with Goethe. In this 'lyric episode', Faust
has tired of Marguerite and awakens from a dream of Helen of Troy besotted
with that siren's beauty and timeless appeal. He demands that Mephistopholes
summon her from the pages of history. This Mephistopholes does but warns
Faust of dire consequences. But Faust persists. Helen appears and bemoans
her awakening from her long sleep and tries to resist Faust saying she wants
no more blood on her hands. Eventually, Faust's ardour wins her over but
their bliss is short lived as the ghosts of thousands of men who were killed
in the wars her beauty provoked rise up before them. After a jealous Paris
carries Helen off, Mephistopholes rues, "Woe to us! We have tempted the wrath
of God!" and the work ends cataclysmically as the abyss opens. Lili Boulanger's
music is tempestuous and melodramatic. Influences of Debussy and Wagner lie
side by side and there is much use of leitmotifs. The love music is voluptuous
and perfumed. The entry of the demons is a truly nightmarish evocation with
its downwardly snaking, writhing figures. Lynne Dawson singing smokily, for
much of the time in her lower register, makes an apprehensive Helen, full
of self-loathing because of all the carnage and misery her fatal beauty has
caused, before she succumbs lustily to Faust and the flames of passion and
then finally desperately clings to Faust as Mephistopholes tries to have
him flee from her and her pursuing demons. Bonaventura Bottone is an ardent
and reckless Faust oblivious to danger and totally consumed with his selfish
passions. Jason Howard, an oaken Mephistopholes is calculating yet not entirely
unsympathetic.
The final work on the album is substantial - Lili Boulanger's setting of
Psaume 130: Du fond de l'abîme (Out of the depths of
the abyss). Like D'un soir de triste, it is concerned with a longing
for light through prevailing darkness and again there is much that is terrifying
and harrowing in Boulanger's concept. The work opens ominously with cello
and tuba uttering a fragment of plainsong over dark rumbling percussion.
Achingly, the music attempts to rise with a desperate urgency with searing
strings and searing trumpet. A chorus, numbed, chants blankly the words of
the psalm and only gradually is any warmth and lyricism admitted. After a
little intimacy and sentiment is allowed the chorus takes fright again and
constant battle ensues between despair and hope with the work ending, in
the main, on a radiant note but with a somewhat ambiguous consolation. Lili
again uses big orchestral forces and luminous choral writing in vivid harmonies
and colours.
Yan Pascal Tortelier leads his forces in trenchant, committed performances.
This is an important release of dramatically charged and atmospheric music
that is often exciting, sometimes harrowing and seldom comfortable. Yet its
riches stimulate and demand repeated hearings.
Strongly recommended
Ian Lace
