Richard Flury (1896-1967)
Die Helle Nacht (1932-1935)
Julia Sophie Wagner (soprano), Stephanie Bühlmann (soprano), Magnus Vigilius (tenor), Eric Stoklossa (tenor), Daniel Ochoa (baritone), Oğulcan Yılmaz (bass)
Gärtnerplatz Kammerchor
Göttingen Symphony Orchestra/Paul Mann
rec. 2021, Lokhalle, Göttingen, Germany
TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC0580 [2 CDs: 106]
For many, the name Richard Flury will be an unknown quantity. Fortunately, I’m familiar with his music, having reviewed several CDs of it on the Gallo label
(review ~ review ~ review ~ review). It’s also worth mentioning that Toccata Classics has made a sterling effort to promote his music through several releases - the opera A Florentine Tragedy (TOCC0427), some orchestral music (TOCC0601) and ballet (TOCC0552). In addition they’ve published a full-length biography: Richard Flury : the life and music of a Swiss Romantic by Chris Walton, which I would heartily recommend.
Flury hailed from Biberist, Northern Switzerland. Studying music in Geneva, Basel and Bern, his teachers included Hans Huber (composition) and Felix Weingartner (conducting), and later Joseph Marx in Vienna. Urs Joseph Flury, his son, comments in the booklet notes that his father spent his life in his home town, never venturing very far, and this prevented him getting the broader recognition that he deserved. As a composer, he was prolific with three operas, several concertos, seven string quartets, some violin sonatas, piano works, four masses and other sacred music in his output.
His music, shunning modern trends, remains rooted in the neo-romantic tradition. His appeal lies in his melodic gifts, his colourful orchestration, imaginative harmonies and well-crafted scoring. In the 1930s he did, however, dip his toe into the waters of modernism and free tonality but found them too hot to handle. Throughout his life he received the advocacy of many prominent musicians of the day, such names as Alfred Cortot, Wilhelm Backhaus, Pablo Casals, Georg Kulenkampff, Joseph Szigeti, Richard Strauss and Hermann Scherchen.
The composer’s first opera was the single-act A Florentine Tragedy of 1928. It had a more positive performance history than his first full-length opera Die Helle Nacht or The Bright Night, begun four years later and completed in 1935. The latter was heard only once in a concert performance broadcast by Radio Bern in 1935. Astonishingly, to this day it has never been staged. In his liner contribution Paul Mann, the conductor on this recording, discusses the complicated logistics of bringing this recording to fruition during the covid pandemic – by all accounts it’s been a labour of love.
Die helle Nacht is based on a play with the same title by Paul Zifferer (1879-1929). The play was published in Berlin in 1912 and bears the subtitle Ein Gedicht. Although Flury stuck to Zifferer’s original, he had to make some cuts to make it manageable. The story is one of passion, sexual jealousy and murderous revenge. The stage is set in Paris in 1514. At the centre of the drama is a Doctor, who is obsessively jealous of his wife Solange. He discovers that fifteen years earlier she had a fling with a hedonistic Knight. He gets the chance to take revenge on the Knight. After embarking on this mission, he eventually relents and allows the Knight to live.
The composer was greatly inspired by the text, composing some of his most ardent music. One hears echoes of Strauss, Korngold and even Berg in the late-Romantic textures. There’s an especial fondness for Viennese waltz rhythms. The score is in 2 acts and is entirely through-composed. Flury’s orchestration is masterful though, as Paul Mann comments, the forces he employs do not match the “extravagant post-Romantic orchestral forces of a Strauss or a Mahler”.
Mann employs an impressive cast of singers. I would particularly single out the wonderful Julia Sophie Wagner for her expressive portrayal of Solange. The chorus is equally splendid and admirable in diction. Mann’s viscerally alive conducting adds to the success and allure of the performance, aided by a warm and vital recording.
The set comes with two booklets. The second booklet is the full libretto in German and English,
Stephen Greenbank
Previous review: Christopher Little
