Rely on Timpani to
deliver rare Roussel works performed
with brilliance and recorded with impact.
And impact is certainly
the word for the Pagan Fanfare
which is given a vibrant and
gritty performance. The large brass
ensemble used in the Fanfare carries
over into the Bardit.
The choir and brass rasp out their rhythmic
summons fit to wake the fallen. The
barbarous side is relieved by extensive
suave passages which alternate with
calls to bloody action. The thoughtful
choral writing is often counterpointed
by a trumpet recalling the stirring
nobility of Holst's setting of Dirge
for Two Veterans.
Aeneas -
Roussel's late choral ballet - was written
for Hermann Scherchen and conducted
by him at the 1935 Brussels International
Exhibition. Its libretto is to words
by Joseph Wetterings. Like the much
more famous Bacchus et Ariane,
this little known ballet addresses a
classical subject. The plot tells the
tale of Aeneas, founder of Rome and
the survivor of Troy. Worldly distractions
do nothing to alleviate Aeneas's depression.
He rejects his gilded past and turns
from his companions. At last freed of
the baggage of his glorious past, Rome
is revealed in imperial splendour. The
ballet ends in an impassioned hymn to
the entwined gleaming futures of Aeneas
and Rome. The Greeks may have destroyed
Troy but a young and indomitable Roman
Empire will soon tread down the glories
of Greece.
Bramwell Tovey here
directs Aeneas with fervour.
The only competition is the 1968 Martinon
recently reissued by Warners (ERATO
25654
60576-2). Tovey jollies the
ballet forward more than Martinon. He
is about two minutes quicker overall.
Martinon has much to commend him in
Roussel but Erato did his memory few
favours by reissuing the 39 minute ballet
in a single track. Timpani do the right
thing and band the ballet into its thirteen
component scenes.
The Tovey version is
brazen, dark, barbarous, pregnant with
tragedy (tr. 12), alive with motoric
energy, though sometimes oddly suave
and even jaunty (tr. 16 in the Hymne
Final) where the choral writing
is concerned. Only in the final Hymn
do things develop a ponderous gait but
this rests more at Roussel's door. Pagan
exaltation is there but the pesante
tread prevents the music taking
wing. The final hymn rather hobbles
this substantial piece of Rousseliana.
Psalm 80's
weighty choral effects speak of an Old
Testament fervour. There is a Dies
Irae edge to this writing. There
are resonances with a work of similar
dimensions and inclinations: Howard
Hanson's Lament for Beowulf.
While orchestrally brighter than Havergal
Brian the work also recalls Brian’s
Fourth Symphony Das Siegeslied (also
on savage Old Testament texts - and
recorded on Marco Polo). At this stage
in Roussel's career his music evinces
a more emotional yield. It is sung in
Roussel's preferred English version.
Canadian tenor Benjamin Butterfield
has the sort of plaintive and imploringly
needy voice that some may know from
the singer Rogers Covey-Crump. Balance
between orchestra and choir is well
contrived when it would have been easy
to allow predominance to one or the
other.
With this issue Timpani
sustain their reputation for fastidious
excellence. The choice of works is perceptive
with recording premieres in the shape
of the minuscule Fanfare and
the short Bardit. The other two
have been in want of modern recordings
for years. Here they receive their due
and if Aeneas is flawed but fascinating,
Psalm 80 works superbly. It can
be counted in the same company as Lili
Boulanger’s psalms, Florent Schmitt's
even more deliriously abandoned and
over the top Psalm 47, Howard Hanson's
emotive Lament for Beowulf and
Havergal Brian's stupendous Das
Siegeslied.
Rob Barnett
Benjamin Butterfield (ten) 