I know I’ve come across – and dismissed – the music of César
Franck-student Vincent d’Indy (1851-1931) before. I faintly
remember an old EMI disc with a symphony and I seem to recall
a Marco Polo disc with chamber works. That - and being unmoved.
But my ears have been opened now, by a new Chandos release that
makes me re-evaluate d’Indy at once and thoroughly. Instead
of being in my mind an also-ran of French music of the turn
of the last century behind Ravel and Debussy, I find him catapulted
to the forefront of French symphonic writing, all courtesy of
Rumon Gamba’s recording of three tone poems with the marvellously
performing Iceland Symphony Orchestra.
Volume 1 of d’Indy’s
orchestral works opens with the 1905 Jour d’été á la montagne
(op.61), a musical day-trip in the Ardèches mountains that
makes Debussy’s more famous impressionist works pale in comparison.
That strength of statement may be partly caused by the excitement
of discovery – but only in part. After all, it is wonderful
to hear fresh music of this quality without having to go back
to the two or three all-too-familiar staples.
The eerie bird
calls that toll through the - very dark - darkness of the
night barely giving way to dawn (in Aurore) and again
just after dusk (in Soir) are of a veracity that reminds
me, if faintly, of nature described in great moments of Wagner
and Richard Strauss. The hovering opening (in C) has that
aboriginal, out-of-nothingness sense also found in the beginning
of Das Rheingold, or Also Sprach Zarathustra,
or Mahler’s First and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. But even
in surging daylight, this chromatic beauty of a work remains
enormously impressive; most importantly it never lapses into
being dainty or epicene.
Still more obviously
under the influence of Wagner (and Liszt) is the much earlier
La Forêt enchantée (op.8, 1878), created with the impression
of the premiere of Der Ring des Nibelungen still fresh
in his memory. A horseback-romp through an enchanted forest
- a German specialty, that - with a seduced hero and plenty
magic, this piece is slightly more explicit and not as hauntingly
evocative. However it’s just as effective in telling a musically
compelling story.
Finally, Souvenirs
(op.62) is a twenty minute tribute to his evidently much beloved
wife (and cousin) Isabelle, who died just after d’Indy returned
from a trip to the United States. It’s a tribute truly and
audibly written with, as Germans would say, blood of the heart
(Herzblut) – powerfully moving. Thus comes Wagner into
play again – working around a constantly developed Leitmotiv
that d’Indy took from an earlier work of his, the op.15 Poème
des montagnes. It caps a terrific disc of superb music,
excellently played and in very fine sound. How it is that
regular Chandos CD’s strike me as better sounding than some
of their SACDs, I don’t know – but no complaints as long as
they sound this good in either one of the formats.
Jens F. Laurson
Iceland Symphony
Orchestra/Rumon Gamba 
